Beautiful Disaster
by xblondecutieo23
Summary: Brucas. In a town full of secrets, Brooke is completely alone. Now that her life is in a downward spiral and her family is falling apart, she turns to her loathed enemy, her boyfriend's brother, Lucas. The attraction, sexual tension, and love begins. BL
1. Prologue

**Beautiful Disaster**

**Authors Note: **READ THIS! Well, this was the story I picked to start first. I know some of you might be disappointed, and for that I'm sorry. I'm still going to do this Clueless story, but right now I can only take on one more story… and this just came to me. I hope you will still like it. And just read it for a little while and see what you think. Oh and review with what you think.

I have so many things planned for this story. It might seem like a simple BN story that becomes BL that has been done before, but this isn't like that. You might see some familiar tidbits from other things like television shows, and I hope that doesn't bother you. I see something that would fit in great and I have to add it. You may think it's a simple modern version of Romeo and Juliet, but no.. I hate R&J. It's a Brooke centric fic. Pretty much everything, although its in past tense, will be in her POV.

This is actually going to be a short fic… I'd say ten chapters or less, but they are going to be long chapters. This is really important to me, and I've been working very hard on it. I'm so excited, so I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you to the amazing Ellie for beta-ing this. She is one fabulous girl and she helps me so much. Remember to tell her she's done a great job! Thanks to the wonderful Elena, because she made my banner for this and it is just beautiful! She's a great artist! Banner: h t t p// img179 .imageshack. us /img179/646/ bdbu0. jpg (Without all spaces)

Okay, so that was officially the longest AN ever. But I wanted to say everything before I started. Enjoy!

**Prologue:**

Brooke Davis smoothed the microscopic wrinkle on the edge of her halter top with her palm, looked to the rear view mirror, and ran her index and middle fingers through a few strands of hair carelessly placed on her forehead, before stepping out of her car on the cement platform. Another day at Tree Hill High had begun and Brooke looked nothing short of perfect.

_As always._

The measly freshman, fleeing down the halls filled with immature seniors pushing him into a lock, would have described her as though she was a goddess. Precisely recognized with Aphrodite. She was beautiful. Her body was flawless. She had a certain glow to her that that only of angels could hold. Her light curls softly patted her upper back with each step she made in her heels. Her designer jeans hugged her curves in all the right places. The light shimmer of her lips made her look like a runway model.

To any of the outsiders who didn't actually _know_ Brooke, she seemed like pure perfection. And maybe, she was… on the outside. But to describe who Brooke really was, on the inside, was nothing but pure contrasting qualities.

Brooke could make a bet with anyone, and would win to say the least, that very few people in the world knew who she really was. Behind the masked beauty and elegance, which she did still hold, was anger, pain, and a boatload of bitterness. Other than the obvious exquisiteness, Brooke held many other things in her soul.

Her body was gift to her, perhaps one of the few great things she was given in life. To anyone in the world as we know it, they would know her as this:

Sexy. Stunning. Hot. Rich. Bitch. Slut. F student. Nathan Scott's girlfriend.

Only some of those things were actually true, but she let people pretend as though they were. She did have the attractive qualities listen, she was quite wealthy, and she was Nathan Scott's girlfriend. On some days, she could even pass as a bitch, but she was nowhere near an F student (in fact, with the recent help from her close friend who was also a tutor, she was now passing everything with a solid C+) and she couldn't be described as a slut.

Maybe two years ago… but that was two years ago. Now she was with Nathan, and even though he ripped her apart on numerous occasions, with her fighting back equally as hard, they loved each other. Well, as much as two high school sweethearts could.

People had so much to say about her, every day, all day long. In fact, it was like she had her own tabloid, made just for her. She was like the Britney Spears of Tree Hill High… without the sleaze, drugs, pregnancies, rehab, etc. Suffice to say, she was popular. A celebrity for Tree Hill standards. Much of this, came from her family. Anyone who said money and looks weren't everything… had _never_ been to high school.

At THH, the in crowd was everything. Brooke, and her select group of rich friends and real friends, along with Nathan and his select group of rich friends and real friends, made up the in crowd. Everyone knew everyone within it, even if they weren't exactly friends. Brooke didn't have many close friends. A few from the cheerleading squad, like Bevin or Rachel, but her close friends were Peyton Sawyer and Haley James. Neither were rich like her, but they'd known each other for years, and had always been a constant in Brooke's life.

The other constant, the previously mentioned boyfriend. Nathan Scott. They began dating in the middle of freshman year, and were going on two years now. To most girls, he was a dream. Brooke wouldn't want to disagree all the time, but he did have his moments. Nathan Scott had a temper. He'd had angry outbursts since he was a kid. Often, he didn't think before he said anything. When Brooke upset him, he could rip her to shreds. Hurt and humiliate her more than any way possible.

She never instantly went back to him. Sometimes, they wouldn't talk for weeks, or even a month, at a time. The said 'in crowd' would be divided… most of the girls, except for the devoted Nathan worshippers, siding with Brooke and most of the boys, except the devoted Brooke worshippers, siding with Nathan. Sometime later, Nathan would do something romantic to win back her heart, and so the cycle began.

Even with the flaws in their relationship, they did still love each other. The problem, though, was that Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis were not two people filled with very much love. They didn't trust easily, they didn't expose their soul, weaknesses included. They never got too close to people, and never admitted love for anyone out of the family…except with each other.

He _almost_ knew her. He knew more than most of the people at the school did, including Peyton and Haley. To most people Brooke was this 'goddess' but Nathan knew better than that. He knew that Brooke had a really bad relationship with her parents, and that her mom was becoming an alcoholic. As was his own mother. What he didn't know was what really went on behind close doors, why she had the bad relationship with her parents.

It had all started a little over four years ago, during Junior High. The clash in the two wealthiest families of Tree Hill. The lies and deceit that caused pure hatred. Everyone in Tree Hill knew that the Scott's and Davis' hated each other.

"Hey babe," Brooke was greeted as she received a kiss on the cheek from Nathan.

"Hey superstar," she replied as she leaned her back against the locker adjacent to his while he retrieved his books. It was a common thing between the two lovers. Meet in the morning before first period, if one hadn't picked up the other for school, and stay together doing whatever they wanted, often in the teacher's lounge, until five minutes after the bell rang.

Although today Brooke decided to do something different. After all, it was a new year and a new semester, why not change it up a little? Maybe the principles office rather than the teacher's lounge.

Brooke loved coming back to school after Winter Break. Not only because she couldn't stand life at home, but because it meant new classes with new people. Even though she acted bitchy a lot, Brooke was a socialite, and people wouldn't pass up the opportunity to talk to her. Even if she didn't really get to know them, she loved meeting new people.

"Gag me," Brooke heard someone say.

She didn't even have to look to the speaker, she already knew who it was. "Why it's the other Scott. Less hot, less important, less talented. Oh _please_, bless me with your presence," she told him, still not looking in his direction.

Brooke took notice of the eye roll coming from Nathan, and he started to walk away. Too many times had he been in the middle of the war, and he wasn't getting involved anymore. Eventually, they would just have it out and kill each other.

Lucas waited for Nathan to leave, before revealing himself from behind a locker door and making his way to Brooke. He reached her, standing just a mere inch or two away. "I'm sure you'd love that Brooke," he said, placing his hand on the locker next to her head.

She rolled her eyes and lightly pushed him out of the way. "Yeah, that's _exactly_ what I want," she told him sarcastically, before opening her own locker. He followed her.

"Come on, Brooke. What's the problem? Nathan? I'm sure that's not a problem. I mean, this is what _whores_ do, so why are you objecting?" he asked her, a pompous smirk plastered across his face. Brooke slammed her locker door shut, before giving Lucas a look that could kill, and then leaving to catch up with her boyfriend.

Brooke knew that Lucas didn't really want to do anything with her, he just wanted to find a way to insult her by calling her a whore. Lucas and Nathan were best friends, not to mention brothers, and he would never do anything physical to Brooke. She knew that.

Yes, the Davis' and Scott's hated each other. Some would say it was just about power and wealth. Who had more money? Who would win the election for this and who would win the election for that? Deb or Kristen? Dan or Richard?

Then there's the fact that Kristen and Dan had an ongoing affair over four years ago, and Kristen was nothing but a pure manipulative bitch to Deb. She tried to break the family apart, keeping Dan to herself. After it was finished and over, both couples went on pretending it never happened, and the families went on to hate each other.

That's where it began for Lucas. He'd been roped in by Dan and Deb, even though he lived with Karen. Karen and Deb were good friends throughout the years, even with the bumpy start. Even Dan and Karen were manageable friends. Lucas sometimes stayed over at the Scott house for a weekend or a few weeks during the summer. Those two families were close. However, Lucas' family and Brooke's family… not so much.

Dan managed to get his son to hate Kristen, Richard, and even Brooke. Then it grew from there. Pure hatred, that's what it was. And really, it was for no apparent reason that involved the two teens at all.

Nathan had never been swept into it. When he began dating Brooke, he was too involved with her to listen to his dad. This made Lucas hate Brooke even more. So while Dan and Deb stayed very adamant on keeping Nathan away from Brooke, and Lucas constantly insulted Nathan, telling him he could do better, Nathan continued to see Brooke without reservations.

"Oh and Brooke," Lucas called out at her, with a smirk all over his face. Brooke slowly turned around with an annoyed look on her face, and judging by the way Lucas was smiling, he didn't have something nice to say.

He stepped forward to her, leaned in closer, and whispered, "Say hello to _Dick_ for me."

Brooke folded her arms across her chest and watched as Lucas exited the hallway, still smiling with satisfaction. No better way to start the morning than getting under Brooke's skin.

"Hey," Brooke said in a seductive tone as she finally caught up with Nathan, and began running her hand down his arm. "Sorry about that," she told him, and waved her arm like it was yesterday's news.

"Whatever," Nathan muttered and stayed silent as Brooke continued to walk down the hall with him. She stopped somewhere near her English room, and grabbed a hold on his arm to stop him with her.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked in a concerned tone, before relaxing her body against his. Brooke's index finger slowly made it's way from the top of his chest down to his rock hard abs. She leaned in closer to him, nearing his ear.

"I was thinking the principles office," she whispered, leaving the feel of her hot breath against his ears.

"This has got to stop Brooke," he told her, completely serious. So much for a little rebel fun in the morning.

"Oh come on, Nathan, not now. Didn't you miss me this past week? You know, when you were _busy_," she said, deciding that this time was as good as any to use the rumors against him.

"He's my brother. I can't be around you two when you're constantly yelling at each other. I'm over it," he told her. Brooke knew the tone he was preparing to use, and she didn't like it. It was the tone where he could call her a name, and toss her out of his company like garbage.

"Nathan, I can't help it that he's completely and utterly-" she started, but was cut off as Nathan overdramatically whirled his head and gripped his palms on her shoulders.

"Brooke," he stated quietly. It contained no emotion. It was how he would threaten a poor defenseless freshman. Something Brooke was not. She wouldn't stand to be talked to like he owned her, however this wasn't the time or place… and she really wanted to fool around with her boyfriend.

"Fine," she mumbled quietly, before putting her game face on and inching towards him. She smiled as her lips neared his, only a few centimeters apart. Her hand moved grazed from his chest to his lower stomach, nearing the desired area.

"I'll be _nicer_ next time," Brooke said, nodding her head, in a completely fake but convincing tone.

"That's all I want," Nathan said. And the Outstanding Actress award goes to Brooke Davis. Of course she wouldn't be nice to Lucas… she wouldn't even try.

"Oh come on, Natey," she said as her hand moved further down and her lips grew even closer. "Don't lie," she whispered and slowly moved her lips to the side of his neck, nearing it slowly, and pressed her body against his. "That's not _all _you want."

-------

Brooke adjusted her rumpled halter a slight bit, and smoothed out her disheveled hair for a second, before opening the door and stepping into her first period classroom.

"Well, Miss Davis, it's so great that you could join us… ten minutes late," her grumpy old teacher complained, before a smile grew on his face. "Just in time actually, we have a student here in need of a partner," he said, pointing to the blonde sitting in the back.

Brooke groaned, and turned back to her teacher. Before a word could escape her lips, he shook his head. Brooke rolled her eyes and trudged her way back to Lucas.

She sat down at the table next to him, and threw her purse onto the table.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite person," Lucas mocked sarcastically. "Come on, Brooke, tell me the truth. You were late because of the little action in the janitor's closet. You planned on making a few extra bucks before classes began," he said, once again insinuating that she was a whore.

"Oh, Lucas, you don't have to pretend like you're not jealous. It's okay, everyone knows big brother is so much _bigger_. You, yourself, was on time today if I'm not mistaken. Poor Luke, you'll learn to satisfy the ladies… eventually," she told him, the words slipping out so smoothly like butter. Lucas lowered in his seat, beginning to sulk, and Brooke smiled with satisfaction.

The class was hushed, and the teacher explained how each pair would go to the head of the classroom, and take turns asking each other questions. They could ask the other person three questions, any questions, in order to get to know each other sooner. Brooke always thought this activity was pointless. This was a junior class, with very few students from another class… everyone knew each other.

When Brooke and Lucas were called to the front, Lucas opted to go first.

"Hmm, Brooke Davis. What would people like to know about Brooke Davis," he contemplated, his index finger pressing into his chin. He paced for a few moments, before stopping and turning to Brooke.

"How does to feel to know that your boyfriend _screwed_ a cheap slut, although clearly an upgrade, last week in Mexico?" Lucas' hand collide with a few of his friends who were giving him high-fives.

Brooke looked to a few of the classmates, the guys laughing with Lucas, who was giving her an expectant look, and a few of Brooke's enemies who were also laughing. Brooke could barely hear as her teacher shouted something at Nathan and people continued to laugh. All she could focus on was Lucas, her eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Kiss my ass," she mumbled before running out of classroom and heading out to her car. Lucas watched her retreating form, and continued to laugh at his victory.

Round three hundred and forty-seven to Lucas.

Brooke stepped into her car, and slammed her purse onto the passenger seat. Sighing, she realized she would have to go back in later to retrieve her backpack. She pulled out her Sidekick and sent Peyton a quick text, telling her to pick it up.

Brooke slowly put her cell phone back into her purse, and slammed her palms onto the steering wheel a few times. She let out a deep breath, smoothed out her hair, and put her keys into the ignition.

Nobody in that classroom knew exactly how much that hurt Brooke. They all saw her as a bitch to hate because they couldn't be her. Not one of them stopped to think about what it did to Brooke. Nobody knew that Brooke really did love Nathan, and it hurt her so much to hear everyone talking about his infidelity during the trip to Mexico during Winter Break.

Brooke silently scolded herself, knowing that she should have joined them. Instead, she opted out for a girls week with Haley and Peyton. She'd been on a Mexico trip once before. It entailed drugs, drinking, clubs, and sex. What a perfect thing to send your already unfaithful boyfriend to.

But nobody cared how this hurt Brooke. None of them knew what she was feeling. No one bothered to learn.

-------


	2. No Sensitivity

**Beautiful Disaster**

**Author's Note: **Pretty much nothing to say. Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. I loved all the reviews I got on the last chapter! Keep it up, please! I really really appreciate it.

**Disclaimer: **Yes, I forgot to put this on the last chapter. I'm going to say this once and only once. I own nothing of One Tree Hill or it's characters.

**Chapter One: No Sensitivity**

"So, what really happened last week?"

Brooke finally asked him the question, after she'd had it asked to her a thousand times since school started. The truth was, she didn't know what had happened. She had overheard some of the guys talking about the drugs they had scored. She had even discreetly asked Tim how the trip was, and even he wasn't good for information.

She'd heard the rumors all week. Hell, she _was_ the rumors. Everyone had different versions. Nathan was drunk and had sex with a waitress. Some said she was a pole dancer. Some said Nathan wasn't drunk and that it was a random girl. Then there were the naïve girls who still thought Nathan was a saint who could do no wrong.

Brooke knew the truth, she didn't have to ask. They all went down, hit the clubs. Got wasted off their asses, and Nathan had sex with someone. This wasn't the first time. He wasn't a major player, but he also wasn't the most faithful person. He'd cheated on her two or so times before, but it always hurt the same.

"We went to Mexico, that's it," he told her dismissively and focused his attention to the basketball he was holding in his hands. His security, his purpose, and his distraction from Brooke.

"Well, I've heard things," she said, insinuating his _activities_, and she knew that he knew this. Brooke watched as her boyfriend stayed silent for a few more moments, only looking at the basketball. They were both late to practice, but they were captains, so who cared? Besides, they needed to talk. Brooke knew that Nathan and herself were only creating problem after problem in their relationship. Eventually, problems got to be too much.

She folded her arms across her chest, and began to tap her foot slightly, her expectant glare burning holes into his skull. Finally, he looked up at her.

"Do you believe everything you hear?" he started, careful to avoid the conversation they were about to start. "Because I've heard that you're a worthless slut and that I can do better," he finished. He knew he was hurting her with the words he had said, and that was the point. Anything to get the focus off of him.

He rolled his eyes in her direction, and walked past her on his way to practice. He stopped a few feet away, nearing the gym doors. "But I don't listen," he added, throwing it into her face.

The truth was, Nathan knew he didn't deserve Brooke. She wasn't the slut that everyone thought she was. She didn't sleep with guys and cheat on Nathan. She was a grade-A girlfriend, and Nathan hurt her. He used her weaknesses against her. He had a temper, and he never thought about what he was saying before he said it to her.

Defeated and upset, Brooke watched as he walked through the doors and began shooting hoops with the rest of the guys like it was nothing. Like _she_ was nothing. The truth was, no matter what people thought, Brooke wasn't a girl for drama. She just wanted simple things, and she didn't like conflict. She didn't want to fight with Nathan, and she didn't want him to hurt her, just as she didn't want to hurt him.

What kind of relationship could two people have when they inflicted pain on each other when things didn't go their way? She knew it wasn't healthy for either of them. However, she just wanted things to be normal, so that she could pretend that everything in her life was okay, and not have to face the truth. Ignorance is bliss.

A few minutes later, into the middle of practice, Brooke approached Nathan against her own better judgment. She wanted things to be easy. She hated when Nathan was upset with her, or when she was upset with him. The team was lined up to do free throw shots, and Nathan was standing on the side. What better time?

"What do you want, Brooke?" he asked as he took notice of the brunette standing next to him. He also noticed her hand that began to caress his arm muscles, and lips that were dangerously close to his.

"Well, I figured," she started, before looking around, and then leaning in to whisper in his ear. She knew the one thing that would cheer Nathan up, and she really wasn't in the mood for a pissy boyfriend. Peyton and Haley had always suggested that he was part girl, or that he had estrogen in his system because of his moody ways.

"Get off of me," he told her loudly and lightly pushed her body off of his. Brooke wasn't sure if she'd ever been so humiliated, because Nathan had drawn all the attention to them. There wasn't a person in the gym who wasn't watching them now. Brooke's face began to grow darker as her cheeks blushed and her eyelids grew shaky.

She wondered if he actually thought about her, and how she felt. She couldn't help but feel like he took her for granted, like most people did. She was always there for him. Whenever Nathan had a problem, Brooke was there to help him in whatever way that she could. However, when it came to her problems, she couldn't even tell him about them.

The worst part was that she felt ashamed. She felt like he wouldn't understand, or he would look down on her. She knew that his family already hated her, and she didn't want to prove them right by telling Nathan any of her family problems.

"Sorry, I just thought-" Brooke started, her eyes pleading for him not to make this worse. Now she wasn't feeling guilty for not trusting him and asking him about Mexico. Now she wasn't trying to make things better. Now she was just pissed.

Although she knew she shouldn't be. This was Nathan, this was how he operated. There was never any sort of indication as to what mood he would be in. Brooke would never know if he was going to be overly physical, extremely sweet, or annoyingly temperamental, and she couldn't change that. She was wasting her own time by being upset by him or trying to change him.

"Of course you did. That's all you ever think about, Brooke," he said, not even bothering to lower his voice. Brooke had always wondered if Nathan took pleasure in doing things like this to her. What she really wondered, though, is why she put up with it. And quite honestly, she didn't have an answer.

"You know, for _once_," he started before picking up a basketball and walking away from her, not a bit concerned about all the questioning eyes that were staring at him. "Why don't you just lay off," he told her rudely. "Maybe that's why everyone calls you _easy_," he finished.

Brooke watched as her _former_ boyfriend stepped into the crowd of boys. She watched, her eyes turning to narrow slits, as Lucas laughed and raised his arm to high-five Nathan, his signature move. Her arm folded as her hand rested on her hip, and her jaw slowly dropped, the anger boiling inside of her.

She walked past all the guys shouting inappropriate comments at her, and the girls who were either giving Nathan a threatening look or laughing at Brooke, grabbed her duffel bag, and slammed the gym doors open. As she reached her car, she noticed that Peyton and Haley had both followed her out. The only thing in the world she was thankful for… her two best friends that always had her back. She didn't know what she would do without them, or how she would get through everything.

She threw her duffel bag into her trunk, and slammed the lid shut, before getting into her car.

"What was that about?" Haley asked as Peyton and herself also stepped into the car.

"Nathan's a jackass, that's what that was about," Peyton piped in, as Brooke started the car and sped off. "Brooke don't be upset over this, he isn't worth it," she continued on. Neither girl needed to be told how irate Brooke was. The anger and hurt was clearly evident through her facial features.

"Why do you stay with him?" Haley asked seriously, not bothered by the fact that she was 'pushing', according to Brooke.

The girls had had this conversation before. Nathan would screw up and do something to hurt Brooke, Brooke would find comfort in her best friends and their mini-sleepovers. The girls would tell Brooke how he's not worth it, and ask why she stays with him. Brooke never gave an answer. She couldn't answer with, "I love him." Even though it was the truth, that didn't cut it. What was the point in loving someone who destroyed you?

She couldn't tell them why she melted and forgave him every time he came around, because she didn't even have an answer herself. He was her constant. He'd been there for so long, whether they were together or apart. Brooke didn't know what life would be like without having Nathan as her boyfriend, and she wasn't ready to find out. She was not a girl who liked change, and she didn't embrace it happily.

-------

She stepped into her house about two hours later. The girls decided it was time for an outing. Well, more like Brooke decided that she was in need of a short, fun night. She was on her way to taking Peyton home, when she took a quick exit and headed for the mall. They shopped for a little bit, and then stopped for ice cream. The girls comforted Brooke a little more, before she took them home and then drove off to her own house.

To say she had had a long day was an understatement, and things were only worse when she got inside. Brooke couldn't help but know how pathetic that was. The one place where she should be able to come home and find peace, was the worse place to be right now.

The first sign that trouble was brewing was the shards of glass laying on the floor a few feet next to the coat rack. She had to wonder why the maid hadn't cleaned it up yet. Next to the broken glass, were a few petals from what looked like a red rose. A few feet in the opposite direction, lay the rest of the contents of the vase. Broken glass, spilt water, and torn up flowers laid on the tiles.

Brooke knew at this point that she should head for her room and just go to bed, but she didn't. Quietly, she placed the contents from her hand, which included her empty cup of ice cream, her cell phone, and her keys, onto the table next to the mess.

She stepped into the kitchen, noticing that her mother was sitting at a barstool by the island. She seemed fascinated with something, because she was staring directly at a blank spot on the wall. Brooke wasn't too concerned with the wall, however. No, she was more concerned with the glass in front of her mother, it's clear content, and the large bottle next to it.

Her mother's drink of choice today… vodka. She could tell the glass hadn't contained ice either. The helpless girl gave a sigh, as she neared her mother with caution and took the bottle into her own hands. It was almost empty. She pulled the trash compactor out from its spot in the counter, and threw the bottle in, hearing it break as it hit the plastic bag and metal.

Next, she took the glass from in front of Kristen, and rinsed the contents out, before placing it inside the sink. There was no hint of her father anywhere, so Brooke assumed that it had been another fight. Someone must have thrown the vase at the other, presumably Kristen at Richard. That's usually how it went.

Brooke took her mother's hand into her own, and placed her other hand on the look-alike brunette in front of her to help her off the stool. Slowly, she walked her mother to her room, step by step. When she got there, she helped her lie down onto her bed. After Brooke's petite mother was laid down onto her bed, Brooke started to softly pull her high-count sheets and comforter over her body. Brooke couldn't help but feel disappointed.

She knew that Haley's parents were standing in the kitchen, drilling Haley about why she hadn't come home straight after practice. Brooke would give anything to have that. Instead, she got fighting parents, one MIA, the other passing out from an afternoon of drinking.

"How was your day, sweetie?" Brooke heard her ask. She gave a sigh and finished pulling the covers from the bottom of Kristen's bed over her body. She looked down to her mother, and wished she could be any place but here. She wished she could be part of one big happy family, in which her mom would hold her while watching a television show or brush her hair out after she got out of the shower.

"Go to sleep, Mom," she told her. She walked to the door, and watched as Kristen slowly closed her eyes. She let out a disappointed sigh, before turning of the overhead lights. What a day.

Brooke went back to the front hallway to retrieve her things. She didn't bother to clean up the mess of flowers… she knew the maid would clean it when she returned. If she returned, that is. Instead, she went straight to her room to watch Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and go to sleep. When she did so, she noticed the blinking light on her cell phone.

_Nathan Scott._

To be quite honest, Brooke wasn't sure if he was calling for another go or to apologize. Usually, it would be to apologize but she never could tell. She wasn't sure if any amount of apologizing could fix what he had said to her earlier. Brooke was pretty sure that Nathan didn't quite realize how much power he had over her, or how much he could actually hurt her. She wasn't the invincible bitch that everyone thought she was, and she just wished the guy that she cared most about would realize that.

Her hand reached for key, and she pressed the ignore button. A minute later, her phone was flashing again.

_One new voicemail._

Brooke exhaled deeply, before selecting to listen to the voicemail.

"_Hey babe, it's me. Look, I know I was a jackass to you earlier, and I'm sorry. There's just some stuff going on, and then the whole Mexico-"_

Brooke heard part of the message, before cutting it off by clicking the key for a second time. _Message deleted. _She knew she needed to start taking charge. She couldn't just keep forgiving Nathan after every time he did something to hurt her. If so, then what was the point in being with him?

-------

Brooke's hands flew up to cover her face in exasperation. It was tiring to avoid Nathan, especially when he was being very persistent. He had approached her twice that morning, and first period hadn't even started. Brooke assumed he had been waiting in the parking lot, because he was at her car before she even opened the door of her VW Beetle.

He followed her halfway across the quad, saying he was sorry and she had to talk to him. Brooke shook her head. "Not so much," she had said. Ten minutes later, he was at her locker pitching the same story. He told her that he was just overwhelmed, he didn't mean any of it, he loved her, and she couldn't ignore him. She disagreed.

Now she was on her way to first period, and she spotted him about halfway down the hall. This time, she didn't plan on having any sort of interaction with him… good or bad. Quickly, as if on reflex, her body leaped into the nearest classroom. She swiftly closed and looked the door behind her, then turned her body to rest against it. She let out a deep breath, before hearing the chuckling coming from across the room. She looked over to the figure sitting in one of the desks. Lucas Scott.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, as she walked closer to him. Lucas… early to a class? Hell must have frozen over. Albeit the wrong classroom, since he was in her first period class, but Brooke knew it was a step in the right direction.

"I should ask you the same thing," he muttered, and looked back down to the paper sitting in front of him. "I'm making up a quiz. I skipped fifth period yesterday," he informed her, and Brooke shook her head indicating that she didn't care.

"Wait, fifth period is lunch. Why would you skip?" she asked dumbfounded. Most people would skip first, coming in late, or seventh, leaving early. Nobody ever skipped fifth period, especially since half of it was lunch.

"Went off campus with some of the guys," he said shrugging. She nodded her head, before leaning against the door and trying to focus her attention on anything in the room. She knew that talking to Lucas Scott for a considerable amount of time could make her deathly ill… he was contagious. Or as she would say if it was third grade, he had cooties.

"You should stop being a bitch and talk to him," Lucas suggested to her, in more of a demanding tone, without looking up from his quiz. Lucas always had a way of using monotone, and it drove Brooke crazy. How annoying.

"I don't think you're supposed to be talking," she told him matter-of-factly, sounding like a teacher's pet. "In fact, where's your teacher? You could be cheating or something," she said as she took a look around the classroom, even though she didn't care at all.

"Who me? Now why would I-" Lucas started, but was cut of by the brunette's snarky glare.

"I wouldn't put it past you," she said rudely.

"Really though, Brooke, I'm supposed to be concentrating here. You know, quiz and all. But I can't because you're being loud and annoying. You should just go talk to Nathan. Because, as much as I tell him he needs to throw you out on your _ass_, he won't. And now that you're not talking to him, he's going to be talking and complaining about you non-stop.

Oh and contrary to what you think, I _don't_ like hearing about Brooke Davis during any part of my day. It tends to put a major restraint on my party mood. So please, stop acting like a selfish, completely overdramatic, bitch, and save us all the time and trouble of you two fighting for a week and then making up. Forgive him now," he told her. He looked up to see Brooke rolling her eyes and heading out of the classroom.

One mission accomplished.

-------

Brooke took another small sip from the red, paper cup she held in her hand. She wasn't quite sure what she was drinking, and she didn't really care. Nothing would liven up the party. Brooke had become accustomed to them, seeing as how someone, usually Nathan, held one every Friday after the basketball game.

This week though, she had too much on her mind to get drunk, play games, and hook up with Nathan like usual. She wasn't quite sure what was going on with her parents, but she knew something more was going on than the usual. Her dad hadn't returned home the night before, and she hadn't been home since. It wasn't unlike her father to leave the house, it was just unusual for him to not return home. Pleading for forgiveness, telling Brooke's mother it would never happen again… familiar story to Brooke.

Speak of the devil, Nathan was making his way over to Brooke. Sadly, she hadn't been able to avoid him all day. What was she thinking? Nathan was very persistent when he wanted something. Not to mention the fact that she had Algebra 2 with him and that they were having a game tonight, followed by a post-game bash at Nathan's beach house. While he had been nice to her all day, he was still pushing her. Something that Brooke hated.

She knew she was falling, that she would crumble beneath him. Who was she to think that she wouldn't? It was the same old story, over and over again. She always forgave him. He treated her like dirt, and within a week she was back in his bed.

It was something about Lucas' words that had gotten under her skin.

"_Save us all the time and trouble of you two fighting for a week and then making up. Forgive him now." _

She wondered how many people thought she was a pushover. If she had told anyone besides her two closest friends that she wasn't planning on getting back together with him, they would have laughed her out of town. She knew people thought she was a joke, and even Brooke knew she couldn't resist Nathan. She knew that they were aware of the fact that she let Nathan walk all over her. The real question, though, was did she need to hold out on Nathan just to prove something to everyone else?

Brooke wasn't that girl. She really couldn't give a damn about what the people at school thought of her. She'd knock into someone in the hallway, muttering a "get out of the way," and they'd fight back saying "bitch." Still, she couldn't care less. None of them knew who she was, so why should she care what they had to say?

No, if she was going to deny Nathan it was going to be at her own request. It was going to be because she was sure that Nathan wouldn't change and he didn't love her. The only problem, she knew that he _did _love her, he just didn't have the greatest way of _showing_ it. He just couldn't help himself when it came to his Dan Scott genes.

She knew she shouldn't be stressing about it this much, and she shouldn't have let Lucas get so deep under her skin. He wasn't worth it. She should be over there with her two best friends, downing shots and having fun. Not contemplating what she was going to say to the dark haired boy coming her way.

"We have to talk, Brooke," he told her as he reached her, took the cup from her hand, and replaced it with his own hand. She nodded slightly, mumbling an "I guess we do."

He mumbled something incoherent, and Brooke didn't bother to ask him to repeat it to her. Her head was only halfway into the world around her anyways. She wasn't fully there. He pulled her closer to him as he wrapped his arm around her waist, and lightly pushed a few strands of hair from her face.

"This is stupid," he told her matter-of-factly, and Brooke just nodded. What else was she to do? It wasn't stupid. It was a pretty big deal. He shouldn't treat her the way that he did, but Brooke knew he would never realize that.

"I didn't have sex with anyone when we were in Mexico," he told her, finally answering her question. Brooke could feel her eyes stinging as she looked up into his own… she knew he was lying. That was the worse part. Not that he hooked up with someone, but that he could lie about it through his own teeth, and that she knew him so well she could tell he was lying.

"I'm sorry about how I talked to you yesterday, you know I don't feel that way about you. I love you, you know that. I just get upset and take it out on you," he told her as he rubbed her arm soothingly. He knew he would win her over, and he was using that to his benefit.

Brooke just wasn't sure why. He'd made it a point to show her how much he could hurt her and how little he thought of her sometimes, and he knew that he could have any girl in school, so why did he keep coming back to her?

"But Nathan, it has to stop. I can't keep doing this," she told him softly, her voice cracking as she did so. She knew how vulnerable she was becoming, how her body was weakening, her strength was dissipating. He nodded as he pulled her closer to him and her head fell comfortably onto a spot on his chest. "Things have to change," she said, breathing out into the firmness of his chest.

She wondered how she could feel so worthless and hurt by him, but so safe and comfortable at the same time? She didn't _want_ to keep going back to him, but she couldn't help it and she couldn't explain why.

"They're going to," he promised her, and Brooke nodded, even though she knew it was an empty promise. She knew the place would clear out in a few hours, and Brooke would stay here with Nathan. She'd make her way to his bedroom, and sleep with him once again. They'd come into school on Monday, hand in hand, and nothing will have changed.

--------

"Yeah, of course," Brooke told Haley as she handed the purple cashmere jacket to her, pulled her into a hug and gave her a quick, friendly peck on the cheek. "If I don't stay I'll just have Nathan drive me home or something," she went on to explain, and gave Haley a smile.

"Take care of our girl," Brooke told her, receiving a nod from Haley as the girl left the party. In a surprising turn of events, Peyton was the third of the trio that had wound up drunk and passed out, instead of the usual Brooke. Of course, she had just enough time to find out that Brooke was back with Nathan, and yell at her for a good fifteen minutes, before getting drunk and passing out.

Brooke quite expected it, though. She knew it wasn't Peyton trying to be mean, she was just looking out for her and making sure she wouldn't get hurt again. Peyton had always been the hard one when it came to Nathan. Peyton had always been the one to push Brooke to stand up for herself and stand up to Nathan. Brooke respected Peyton for that, and she took comfort in knowing that her best friends would always be there for her.

She waved goodbye to her friend, and watched as they drove away, before making her way back into the party. It was passed midnight and the fun of the party was dying down, but she also wasn't ready to go home and face her sure-to-be-drunken mother and father fighting. So she was quite surprised when she entered the house, saw her cell phone voicemail alert flashing, and heard the two hour old message saying her father hadn't returned home.

Tears began to build in her eyes as she heard her mother's words. Hearing the part about how her father still hadn't returned home. The following part where her mother confessed that she deserved it when he had hit her the day before because she had made so many mistakes.

Her exact words being, _"First that thing, then with Dan, and now… _this_. I'm such a failure. I'm a failure to you, Brooke," _and then the sobs followed.

Brooke wasn't quite sure what was happening, or what her mom was even talking about on the message. Her family had always had problems. Her parents had never really been _parents_ to her. They'd been there to give her money and wave her away. Then, in junior high, when the affair between Dan and Kristen had been revealed, Brooke's life was torn to pieces.

Her already absent mom and dad began to fight more than any couple should. Often, Brooke would be awakened at three in the morning by the screams during their fighting. Her dad began leaving frequently on "business trips" and her mom either left herself, or drank herself away in her bedroom. She'd been fired from her job, so it was just Richard making the money. Somehow, they still managed their wealthy status.

It was a little over two years ago when the suicide attempt happened. Brooke assumed that her mother had just had enough, and that's what drove her to down alcohol with a dozen Vicodin. Kristen, after being pushed into meeting with a therapist, had insisted that it was an accident. She claimed that her back was hurting, after a heavy fall she had taken, and that she was half asleep when she reached for the bottle. She _claimed_ she didn't know how much she was taking and that it was just an accident, but Brooke knew the truth.

Yes, Brooke's family had always had problems, but she knew it was more than that. Her father had never stayed gone all night without telling either Brooke or Kristen first. She had never heard her mom sound so broken and admit that she had made those mistakes. Her only hope that her father would stop the emotional, and occasionally even physical, abuse before it drove her mother to really end her life.

Brooke knew there was more going on than she was aware of, and she was sure she wasn't ready to find out what it was.

-------


	3. Nowhere Warm

**Beautiful Disaster**

**Author's Note: **Okay, so here's the next chapter. I appreciate every single review that I got on the last one, thank you so very much! I do feel the need to say something though. I don't mean this out of disrespect or anything, just a warning. I am not, nor will I ever be, super-woman. I need everyone to understand I've got three fics going on, a fic I'm supposed to be starting, and oneshots I'm working on. Plus, betaing.

So, while I don't intend to stop writing this, I don't want anyone to expect a new chapter every week. The last update was almost three weeks ago, and I think that's reasonable time for an update. I don't want to nag or anything, and I love that you are all so interested in my fic, but I just want to let everyone know in advance that it will take me awhile to update so please bear with me. So that's it, that's my little speech. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it was by far one of my favorite to write ever. Please leave me your thoughts in reviews.

Thank you to my lovely lovely lovely wonderful fantabulous beta Ellie. She truly is amazing. Ask her, she'd agree.

**Chapter Two: Nowhere Warm**

Brooke sighed as she stumbled into the kitchen, where the few people who were still at Nathan's were seated. Contrary to what they thought, she wasn't drunk, just tired. Tired of everything. She was tired of constantly having to act a certain way at school, she was tired of dealing with drama with Nathan, and she was deathly tired of the problems with her family.

She knew she wasn't going to stay with Nathan tonight, she was going to have him take her home so she could check on her mom. Now, of course she wasn't going to tell him that, she would make up a different excuse. She heard someone call her name and she looked up from her phone, that she had been absentmindedly staring at for ten minutes, to the people seated around the table.

The first person was Theresa, Brooke's somewhat friend. They weren't close friends, more like acquaintances that were both in the same crowd and both on the same team. Then there was Tim, one of Nathan's and Lucas' best friend, and the resident idiot of Tree Hill.

Next to Tim was Jared, another guy on the basketball team, and another person stuck up Lucas' ass. Other than his Lucas-worshipping ways, Brooke didn't know Jared to well.

Sat next to Jared, was Lucas, who Brooke distinctly rolled her eyes when looking at him, and Nathan. She looked back to Theresa, the only girl left at Nathan's and the owner of voice that called to her. Brooke wasn't surprised that Theresa was still here. She was pretty sure that Theresa would be hooking up with one of them, and then considering the fact that she was the hardest partying girl in Tree Hill, naturally she would still be at Nathan's.

"Come play with us, Brooke," Theresa told her, and Brooke walked over to the table with a questioning look on her face. Even though she knew what they were playing, and didn't need to ask, she still did.

"Okay, what are we playing?" Brooke asked in a dull, flat tone. She knew none of them would notice, except maybe Nathan but he didn't look like he was paying attention. No one would notice how tired and defeated she was, and Brooke was going to keep it like that.

"Well, _Brookie_," Lucas started in a menacing tone, and Brooke knew he was about to say something rude. Who was she kidding, she didn't need to tell by his tone, Lucas was always rude. "Were playing I Never," he told her, and Brooke nodded, still somewhat absentmindedly. She had too much going on in her head to be thinking about a stupid game that they played every week.

She watched Lucas as he handed her a red cup full of some type of alcohol, and noticed the grin he was displaying on his face. Sometimes, she wished she could just slap it right off of him, because he deserved it. Really, she would just slap his pretty little face for the heck of it… and enjoy it while she did.

Brooke could remember back, a few years ago, when they started to hate each other. They weren't friends, they hadn't even known each other, when Kristen and Dan's affair began. When Deb found out, she promised to ruin Kristen's life. To make matters worse, Dan stood by his wife, naturally, as Kristen tried to pry Dan away from his family. Deb began to hate Kristen more than any woman in the world, and Dan cut Kristen out of his life, telling her to never come near his family again.

In the midst of this, Brooke's family began to fall apart, and Dan's family began to hate her. Not only did they hate Kristen, but Richard and Brooke too. From that time on, Lucas said every mean thing to Brooke that he could think of. He taunted her at every possible opportunity, and so their public hatred of each other began.

The one saving grace, Nathan gave her a chance. When they began dating freshman year, Nathan didn't listen to Dan's protests. He didn't go around thinking that Brooke was devil's spawn like Lucas. Instead, he fell in love with her.

After that, Lucas began to hate Brooke even more because Nathan was with her, and Brooke had managed to land a guy from the family that hated the Davis'. Some would call their war childish and immature, but both Brooke and Lucas grew up believing everything that their parents told them, and they'd hated each other for years. Things had escalated too far for them to call a truce.

Brooke took the cup from Lucas, deciding that she might as well play. Nathan wasn't leaving yet, and Brooke wasn't even sure if she wanted to go home yet, so what else did she have to do?

"You might as well just drink it all now though," Lucas started, averting his gaze to the drink in front of him so he wouldn't have to look at Nathan. The boy knew that his brother and the bitch he hated were back together, and he knew that his brother hated when Lucas insulted her. But for some reason, he just couldn't hold back.

"Since we all know you've pretty much done _everything_ with _everyone_," he finished telling her. Brooke rolled her eyes, as she heard Tim and Jared give a few laughs, and Lucas high-five the two boys like he always did after he said something mean to her. It was practically becoming a sport.

The problem, though, was that Lucas knew exactly what to say to get under Brooke's skin. The thousands of things he could imply or flat out say to her, calling her a whore was the worst. Implying that she was a stupid slut, like he so often did, hurt her the most. She wasn't that girl… not anymore.

She watched as Lucas looked up to her, with his trademark evil grin plastered all over his face, clearly triumphant. She watched as the guys and Theresa chuckled at Lucas' words because that's what people did. Nobody around her had many real friends… they just went with the flow. The worst part though, was that Nathan wasn't saying anything. Her own boyfriend couldn't even disagree.

Brooke shot Lucas a dirty look, glaring at him as though she was going to kill him. She wanted to slap him, or throw her drink on him, or something, so badly, but she decided against it. He wasn't worth it, and she was too tired to put in the effort. Instead, she retrieved her jacket and angrily exited the house.

-------

Brooke felt the weight below her, and came to an abrupt halt. If she didn't take a break for a second, she was going to pass out. Her ankles were searing with pain from walking so quick and hard on two and a half inch, strappy heels.

Because of the boiling anger inside of her, she felt like she was going to kill someone. Considering the bus stop, the place where elderly people who can't drive and homeless people tend to stray towards, was near, and her ankles were killing her, she figured she needed to stop for a second and calm down.

She wished for just one second that Nathan would stand by her, and act like a real caring boyfriend, Lucas would fall off a cliff and land in a five year coma, and her parents would stop letting her down and act like real parents. She knew she was asking for too much. It was likely that none of those wishes would come true.

No, she knew she couldn't dream for things like that. She would have to settle for a long hot shower, a tub of ice cream, a warm, comfy bed, and some reruns on her TiVo. Maybe she'd organize a shopping trip for the following day with the girls. Brooke could definitely use some girl time.

She let out a deep breath she had been holding, in hopes of calming down, and continued to walk down the dark streets of Tree Hill. She knew she could whip out her cell and call Haley to come get her and take her home, but it was too late. She didn't want to bother her, especially since she had already had to take Peyton home.

She watched as she neared a house down the road from Nathan's. She'd never met the family, or the child, that lived there. She stopped and turned, looking at the thing that had caught her eye across the street. It was one of those little Barbie cars. She'd seen them a few times before. The young children could get inside, and drive the electronic car.

A few feet away from it was something from Playhouse. It had a short little red slide that came out from a small space up top. It had a few foot holes on the other side, which was what Brooke assumed the kids climbed up on, and another small space underneath.

She'd never had things like this before. There wasn't much she could recall of her childhood, but amidst the stuff that she could, toys and fun wasn't in it. She could picture the young toddler jumping and playing around with her mother or father nearby smiling, and Brooke could only _imagine _what that was like.

Naturally, Brooke was jealous. She knew how pathetic that sounded, jealous of a four-year-old. However, she couldn't help but wish that she had had parents who cared, parents to have fun with, or those overly expensive toys. Hell, she would even take parents who grounded her and yelled at her for her bad grades. Brooke hated how the kids who had that didn't appreciate it.

Brooke would give anything to have even just one parent like that, rather than parents who lie, cheat, and deceive for wealth and power, along with drinking the world away and completely ignoring their daughter. Brooke could only dream of the day in a year and a half when she was free from it. However, she knew these were just wishes, and life had a way of not being in Brooke's favor.

She let out a soft sigh, her entire body defeated. She wondered what people would think if they saw just how much her demeanor changed from school to her home. She turned away from the house and began continuing to walk down the sidewalks of Tree Hill. She couldn't wait to get home, lay down in her bed, and rest peacefully. Or at least, as peacefully as she could.

A few seconds, and about ten feet later, a car pulled up near her. She could see out of the corner of her eye as the vehicle slowed down until it was even with her walking pace. She dug her feet into the soles of her shoes to get a good grip, and started walking faster. After all, she never knew what kind of people would be on the streets this late at night.

She heard a voice mumble her name from the car, and turned her head to face it. What she saw wasn't a mugger or drunken idiot looking to hurt her like she had expected. No, instead she saw Lucas Scott looking at her, his head slightly poking out through his window.

"Oh dear God," she muttered to herself, turned back to face the direction in front of her, and continued walking. Her day had already been bad enough, did he really need to make it worse for her? Brooke couldn't wait for the day when Lucas would finally get what he deserved.

"You're seriously walking home?" he asked, as though he'd never seen Brooke do any manual labor.

"Isn't that bad on your thousand dollar shoes or something?" he asked rhetorically in a condescending manner. For once, Brooke wished he would stay out of her life. Actually, disappear from her life would be a better way of putting it.

"Get in the car," he demanded with a raised voice as he continued driving at Brooke's walking pace.

Brooke let out a fake laugh, and continued walking down the dimly lit sidewalks. "You sound like you're going to kidnap me. Although, that wouldn't surprise me. I'm sure there isn't anything you wouldn't do," she told him, avoiding the real question she was thinking. What she was really wondering, was why he was following her? Why hadn't he just passed by her without a care in the world, like normal?

"I'll take you home," he informed her, ignoring the comments directed towards him.

"Just get in," he demanded once again, by now he'd really confused Brooke. Was he on drugs or something? Since when did he have the slightest care in the world about Brooke Davis? Was he planning on doing something to her, or did he _actually_ feel bad about his previous actions?

"Yeah right," she mumbled acerbically and continued to walk down on the cement beneath her. To be honest, Brooke knew she wanted him to drive her home. She was tired and her feet were killing her. She silently cursed herself once again at her choice of shoes for the night. However, she didn't want to give into Lucas if he was planning anything, and if he wasn't she didn't want to give him any absolution for his evil ways.

"Brooke, just get in the fucking car," he demanded, this time with much more force. Brooke stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at him. Like the domino effect, he also hit the breaks and stopped his car. Brooke let out a deep sigh before giving in and making her way to the other side of his car. She opened the door cautiously and stepped into the passenger seat.

Lucas said nothing as he started the car back up and the began driving down the streets towards Brooke's house. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. After a minute, which felt like an hour, of complete and utter silence, Brooke began to wonder why she had even gotten in the car. She'd rather take swollen ankles and ruined shoes, because describing the situation as awkward would be an understatement. It was beyond awkward.

She slowly looked over to the meter behind Lucas' steering wheel, and took notice of the fact that they weren't going very fast. Maybe she could just jump out. She would slowly take off her seatbelt, count to three, open the door, and just jump out. Maybe Lucas wouldn't even notice, and would be long gone. She knew it was a ridiculous idea.

She looked towards his radio/stereo system, and noticed that it was turned off. Music couldn't hurt the situation. It would make this five minute drive go quicker… it was starting to become unbearable. Brooke was sitting in the car of the guy she hated most, and they weren't saying a word to each other.

Slowly, she leaned forward to reach the dial. Within a second, Lucas finally spoke to her and it wasn't in a very nice way. "Don't touch that!" he yelled to her, and Brooke quickly backed away. She threw her hands into the air defensively, her palms facing him.

"Sorry," she muttered contemptuously, and sat back into the seat while rolling her eyes. What a joke. What was she thinking when she decided that Lucas could actually be nice for more than a billionth of a second?

A few seconds later, she decided 'what the hell' and turned to face him. "Do you even know where my house is?" she asked him condescendingly.

He gripped his hand, placed on the top of the steering wheel, harder on the leather, and Brooke pretended not to notice. How ironic, she thought, that she had managed to piss him off after saying only nine words throughout the entire ride.

"Don't you think I'd ask if I didn't know?" he bit back harshly. She let out a louder-than-normal sigh and sat back into the seat. Why even bother? For such a short drive, considering her house was only about ten minutes from Nathan's, this was turning out to be longer than she had thought, and definitely not worth the trouble.

"Everyone knows where your house is," he said softly, backing down and retracting his claws.

Brooke jerked her head quickly, thinking about his words. She wasn't sure what he had meant by that, but she knew she wasn't going to ask him. "Okay," she said softly, deciding to leave it at that. At least he wasn't yelling at her, she could be grateful for that.

A couple minutes later, they arrived at Brooke's house. She was thankful that the tension had died down somewhat. It had been a little less awkward than the start of the ride. However, it had become just as uncomfortable, if not more, when she noticed the sight of her house. And she could see that Lucas noticed it too.

Her front door was wide open, a light beaming out of it. She couldn't tell what the item of choice was this time, but something was lying broken in the doorway. She had never quite understood why her mother would throw things. Brooke could yell at someone or even hit them, but she had never thrown something at someone. It was a frequent thing for Brooke to come home and find something broken that her mom had thrown. It was her first clue of a fight.

Quickly, she looked over at her driveway from the spot in the street that they were sitting in. Her father's car was in the driveway. Her mom had gotten her wish, Richard came home. And in the time that he had been home, which was short judging from the voicemail message left on Brooke's phone saying how he still hadn't arrived earlier on in the evening, the two had managed to get into another fight.

_Great._

The tears began to swell in her eyes and her hand started to lightly shake, but she didn't notice until she heard her name being called. She took in a deep breath and looked over at Lucas, quickly shutting her eyes to erase all marks of her tears as much as possible.

"Thanks for the ride," she mumbled and swiftly spun around and reached for the door, trying to get out as soon as possible. However, she was stopped by the hand that was now gripped on her upper arm. She let out a deep breath before turning around to look at him, an expectant look plastered on her face.

"Is everything o-" Lucas started and took a glance at her house. He turned back to her, noticing the tears still in her eyes.

Brooke knew he had no clue as to what was going on in her house. He only knew what his parents had told him, and quite frankly, Brooke had no idea what that was. And really, she wasn't in the mood for explanations tonight. Even if she was… Lucas didn't deserve one. He didn't deserve to know anything that went on in Brooke's life.

"Is there something going on?" he asked. Brooke couldn't help but slightly roll her eyes at the irony. Lucas, her so called enemy, who never breathed a word to Brooke unless it was calling her a bitch or a slut, was now asking her about her personal family problems. Brooke had two words for Lucas… 'screw you'.

Brooke shook her head immediately, and like usual, pretended as though everything was okay. "I can hand- uhh, its fine," she assured him while nodding her head.

Brooke watched as he slowly turned, and glanced at the house once again. "You know, I can take you somewhere else," he informed her, clearly insinuating that she didn't have to be there.

To Brooke, it sounded like a sincere tone. If she wasn't so damn upset about the night, she'd be asking, "Wow, empathy. Is Lucas Scott actually capable of a human emotion?" But in all actuality, she was too tired to be in the mood for that tonight.

"No, it's okay… really," Brooke told him. Lucas nodded to her, and Brooke managed a convincing smile. A few seconds later, she looked down to her arm that Lucas still had a hold on. "Uh, Lucas…" she said, and pointed down to her arm by tilting her head.

"Oh right, sorry," he mumbled, and released the hold on her arm.

Brooke gave another smile and a "thanks." She knew this side of Lucas was sure to be gone within ten minutes. In fact, she didn't think this side of Lucas ever came. To actually think about someone else, and show real compassion and sincerity, well that only existed in dreams of Lucas… not the real world. Still, it did let Brooke know that all hope was not lost in the world.

She stepped out of the car, put on a brave face, and made her way into her house.

-------

Brooke walked into the halls of school on Monday, tired and defeated. Of course, she had nobody to run to and tell them what was going on. The few people that she could tell, she was too ashamed to. How pathetic was that? She couldn't even tell her best friends the problems that were going on in her life. That is why Brooke Davis was alone. It's not that she didn't have anyone to trust, it's that she's afraid they would think less of her.

Her parents never told her what had happened. They hadn't said much of anything the night she returned home. She heard Kristen yelling something at Richard, until she walked in the room. Immediately, they both stopped talking. Brooke asked them what had happened, and they both mumbled that they had just gotten into a "little argument."

Brooke nodded to them, knowing full well that something was going on, and went to her room. When she got there, she threw on sweats and went to bed. The rest of the weekend, she'd spent out and did things, ignored Nathan's calls, and worked on clothing designs she was making. She received very few words from her parents, and none of them consisted of explanations.

When she had woken up earlier that day, she seriously considered skipping school. She was too tired, and really not in the mood to put on a fake smile for the day. She stepped in the shower, almost dead to the world, and then got ready for school. Nobody would notice what she was feeling, so there was really no point in not going to school. Besides, on Monday they had cheerleading practice, and that was always something Brooke looked forward to.

She smiled to Haley and Peyton when they met Brooke at her locker. She thanked them for going out with her the previous weekend, reminded them of practice for the afternoon, and told them she'd see them during third period. It was like she was reading from a script, in which she knew the lines by heart from repeating them day after day. After all, it was the same thing day after day. Nothing ever changed… not really.

Say for instance, Nathan. Like Brooke had predicted, he had met up with her before she'd even reached her first period class. She'd been on her way, when he'd spotted her in the hallway and cut her off.

"Nathan, just leave me alone," she mumbled. However, he didn't oblige. She let out a deep sigh as she stopped in the middle of the hallway. It was easier than trying to pass him, considering he was the best basketball player in the school, and was quick on his feet. "What?" she demanded impatiently, as she looked at him with an expectant look on her face.

He offered her a smile as he pulled his arm out from behind his back. Brooke looked down to his hand, seeing that he was holding a handful of red roses. So it wasn't her favorite flower, Brooke wasn't sure that he even knew what that was, but it was a sweet gesture. She looked back up at him, a slight smile on her face. Her smile grew as he whispered a sincere "I'm sorry" and kissed her on the cheek.

She loved that Nathan. The Nathan that would treat her like the only girl in the world. The Nathan that would take the time to appreciate her. The Nathan that would show her what she meant to him. The Nathan he was being at that exact moment was the Nathan that had made Brooke fall in love with him. When doing those things, it made Brooke want to spend the rest of her life with him.

However, she hated the fact that it took for her to be mad at him or break up with him for Nathan to do those things for her. She wanted him to do them just because he loved her, not because he wanted her to forgive him. She knew she was wishing for something that didn't exist… he would never be like that. And that truly disappointed Brooke.

She offered him a sincere smile, and planted a soft kiss on his lips. Maybe she was being childish for being mad at him. After all, it wasn't like he did something horribly wrong to her. Was she entitled to be mad at him for not sticking up for her? She knew the answer. The truth was, if this was a one time thing, she wouldn't have been mad in the first place. The fact that this was probably there two-hundredth time fighting over something like this, which was why Brooke knew she was aloud to be upset.

"I'm really sorry, Brooke," he told her, apologizing once again. "I shouldn't have let them talk to you like that," he continued and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him.

"I want us to stop fighting, Nathan. I hate that this keeps happening between us," she told him, although sure that the words were going right through him. He probably wasn't processing them at all. He wasn't listening to her, not completely, and he wasn't understanding what she was saying. The worst part, she knew it would always be that way.

"We're going to, Brooke," he assured her as he planted a kiss on the top of her forehead. She leaned closer to him, resting her head on his collar bone. "We're not going to fight anymore," he whispered to her. Brooke nodded, feeling comfortable and safe. Even if it was empty promises, even if he was just saying these things out of obligation, and had no intention of following through, it made Brooke feel better.

"Walk me to class?" she asked with a cheerful smile on her face. He took the books from her hand, placing them into his own left hand, and locked his other hand with her own. He walked her the rest of the way to her first period class. "I love you," he said to her softly and planted another kiss on her forehead.

She smiled to him as she watched him walk away.

-------

Brooke let out a sigh as she put her pink tote bag onto her shoulder and walked out of class. She hated Monday's. The day seemed longer, the classes took forever, and it was the first day of the week. Not to mention, the teachers always assigned a lot of homework at the end of class, especially her first period teacher.

"Brooke!" someone yelled behind her. She rolled her eyes, recognizing the voice, and turned around. "Hey Brooke," he said, in a completely different tone than the usual.

Okay, so one thing had changed, and it was a change she was not welcoming. Suddenly, he was being nice to her? She could only wonder what prompted this sudden change of heart. Oh yeah, the fact that he had caught a quick glimpse of what her home life was like. Was he pitying her? He should have known that would only anger her.

"Is everything okay?" Lucas asked her. She gave a sigh as she folded her arms across her chest. They'd hated each other for years. They planned how to ruin each other on a daily basis. He called her numerous obscenities, including her personal favorite "vile slut." Just days earlier, he personally humiliated her in front of her 'friends' and her boyfriend. Now, suddenly he wanted to play nice?

Either he was seriously bipolar, or up to no good.

Brooke gave a simple shrug, not bothering to answer. Even if she did, it would just be a lie, so what would be the point?

"You know, if you ever want to talk or anything…" he said, not exactly sure how to say what he was trying to say. Brooke looked up to him, still unsure of what he was doing. Even if he was being sincere, which she doubted he was, did he expect her to return the favor?

Whether he knew it or not, he hurt her when he talked bad about her or her mother. Yes, he did that on occasion. There was probably one person in the entire world that Lucas talked worse about than Brooke, and that was her mother. She wasn't going to suddenly be nice to him.

She stared down at the ground, creating a severe awkward environment, but what was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to thank him? Was she supposed to tell him that she would talk to him if she needed someone, even though that would only happen if hell froze over? Or was she supposed to give her usual snarky comment to him, and walk off?

"Don't pretend to care Lucas, you wouldn't want anyone to think you have a heart," she told him, placing her award-winning bitchy smile on her face, and continued to walk past him to her next class. Yup, nothing had changed. They weren't suddenly BFF's… so she picked option C. Snark and walk away.

-------


	4. Indecent Exposure

**Beautiful Disaster**

**Author's Note: **Okay, yeah, so here's the deal. It took awhile... that often happens in fics. I'm sorry that you all had to wait, yes, but I am not sorry for the delay. In the beginning I was but after rude reviews and personal messages all the time asking me why I haven't updated or if I plan to at all. Well thanks for the support. If you've read my authors notes at all, you would know that I said my life has become crazy busy and don't expect chapters every week. And you know, this is a two way street. Ellie and I work hand in hand together. And if she's busy and takes more time on the chapter, then so be it! She is a large part of the finished result, and I intend to keep it that way. She, along with myself I might add, should be allowed all the time we want on the chapter. And it's going to stay that way. Most great fics don't have updates coming out every week. Some take a month, some take more than that! If this is a problem, well then I'm very sorry. I hate to lose readers, but this is just something that won't change. I may have a chapter that takes two weeks to update, and the next take six weeks. You never know. That's part of fanfiction and that's part of life! So after reading that, I hope that anyone who has been sending me the rude messages will understand this and stop.

With that said, thank you very much for betaing this Ellie! hug And enjoy everyone.

**Chapter Three: Indecent Exposure **

Brooke smiled to her two best friends as they neared her locker. She had great news to inform them of. Brooke had been quite excited when she signed up for her new challenge. It had made her feel somewhat better about her hectic life. She was dealing with too much unwanted drama on a constant basis; this would be something constructive to put her time and effort into.

"Guess what?" she asked them in a bubbly tone, and watched as the two exchanged looks, both oblivious to what Brooke had to tell them. She folded her arms across her chest, rested her temple on the metal locker, and sent them another smile.

"What's going on?" Haley asked her impatiently. She knew her best friend was a very spontaneous girl, and was widely known for coming up with crazy ideas at the last minute… and going through with them. Who knows what Brooke would be up to this time?

"Well, you know how Principle Turner announced that thing on Friday for the student council? Which, by the way, I still can't believe that Madison and Sarah were suspended. I mean, they know everything, didn't they know about the locker searches ahead of time? Why would they have kept the marijuana in their lockers?" she asked, still confused about the whole situation.

She knew Madison Fisher and Sarah Tanner quite well. Madison used to be on the cheerleading squad, until she had abruptly quit, and Sarah had once lived next door to her. Both had the presidential spots in student council, Madison being the class president. A few months earlier in the year, the whole student body had become well aware of their drug problems.

The school administration claimed that the locker searches were "random" but Brooke knew that Madison or Sarah knew someone inside. They had never been caught with anything… until now. The Friday before, the school Principal had announced that both Madison and Sarah were suspended and would be losing their student council spots for "confidential reasons" but everyone knew why. Brooke had even been one of the students in the hallway during the search when they were exposed, considering her locker was right across the hall from Madison's.

"Yeah, Brooke, we know. I think everyone's heard about, it" Peyton informed her absentmindedly. "But what does this have to do with you?" she asked, somewhat confused with Brooke. Not that it was out of the ordinary; Brooke was a very unique person.

"Well, then you know they were taking immediate candidates to replace Madison," she told them, intentionally dragging out her big news. Both girls looked at her, nodding their heads, with expectant, and impatient, glares on their faces.

"Yeah," Peyton said, urging Brooke to continue.

"And you know that I have a little free time on my hands and have a nice popular status," she continued, toying with them in a playful manner. She loved the atmosphere she was in when she was with her friends. They meant a lot to her, and were a very important part of Brooke's life. She just wished she could get to a point where she could tell them everything that was going on.

"Well," she continued, dragging it out as much as possible, before she was interrupted by the administrative announcements. She pointed up to the speaker and winked to the girls, indicating that it would tell them her news, which they were pretty sure they already knew.

"Due to the immediate suspension of two student council officers, this special election will take place much faster than usual. Candidates need to enter before seventh period today, and you must have two teachers sign off on your entry form. Teachers, you are able to sign one, and only one, form. With that said, three of the five current candidates are Rachel Stevens," the announcer stated, and paused for the shouts and clapping that began to erupt in the halls.

Brooke new she already had Rachel beat. Yes, she would be a great class president. She had perfect grades and was part of the computer, math, and science clubs, however she associated with less than ten percent of the class, and to be quite frank, school elections _are _a popularity contest. Brooke wasn't afraid to admit that.

"Dylan Merriman," the announcer proceeded to call.

Brooke was sure to beat him, also. He was quite nice, and really cute, but he tended to stick to himself. He was known as a "loner" in the school. She knew the reason he had signed up for the election. She'd overheard him talking to his guidance counselor in the attendance office the previous week, when she was ten minutes late to school due to car trouble. The counselor had told him he had good enough grades, but taking part in organized school activities would look better to colleges.

"And Brooke Davis."

Brooke immediately turned to face the hallway as many faces stared straight at hers. She put on a large fake smile and hugged her chest with her right hand as if she was already accepting the position. She knew she was. She acknowledged the applause and approval from her peers, before turning back to her two best friends. They both jumped up and down excitedly, Haley more so than Peyton, while hugging her.

"What teachers did you get to sign off on it?" Haley asked curiously.

"Well I went to them yesterday, Miss Miner was first," Brooke told them and watched their nods of understanding. She hadn't had Miss Miner as a teacher since freshman year, but her husband worked with Brooke's dad and she was friends with Brooke's mom, so she knew she could go to her for a signature.

"And the second was Mr. Whitfield," she told them quietly, and the three erupted into giggles. "Shh," Brooke urged them as she pushed their shoulders simultaneously.

"I can't believe you went to him," Peyton said while containing her laughter. She rolled her eyes playfully at Brooke and lightly pushed the brunette. Mr. Whitfield was known by the student body to be very appreciative of the teenage girls in revealing clothing. There had even been rumors of an affair between him and a student, but the accusations had been denied. Naturally, as Brooke showed a little cleavage he felt it necessary to sign for her.

"Whatever," Brooke brushed them off as she turned out to face the hallway of people and folded her arms across her chest. "I got the signatures I needed, who cares how I got them?" Brooke asked rhetorically in a hushed voice. Honestly, it didn't matter to her at all how she got the signatures, just that she had them. She wanted to be class president because it would be something good to put her focus on and, as cheesy as it sounds, make a difference.

"Hey, using the pervy teachers to your advantage," Haley said somewhat absentmindedly as she shuffled through the contents of her backpack, trying to find her Chemistry report that was due first period. "She's got my vote," Haley said seriously as she turned to somebody's locker and used it to prop her backpack against it. "Damn! Where is my report?" she yelled out in frustrated tone.

"First thing on the agenda, get these cranky tutors' some chill pills," Brooke said in a playful manner as she smiled towards Haley. She lifted the backpack out of Haley's hands, and began looking for the report. "Here, the presidential candidate in me will help you find it," Brooke said and winked to her brunette friend. "What are we looking for?"

Haley mumbled something incoherent and took the bag back into her own hands. "I've got it," she mumbled rudely and continued fishing through things.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you've already got this thing beat," Peyton said as she gave Brooke a loud pat on her left shoulder. "Although, Dylan is pretty cute," Peyton continued suggestively and started waving her head frantically to look down the hall for him.

"P. Sawyer!" Brooke yelled and reached out to punch Peyton's arm. Peyton leapt back and covered her arm overdramatically. "I don't care how cute the competition is, you will vote for me!" she demanded as she lifted her fist again and threatened to hit her. "Or I'll never talk to you again," Brooke informed as she let her arms fall down, and stared at Peyton threateningly.

"Ahah!" Haley yelled as she ripped the four- page report out of her backpack and threw her arms in the air. "Finally, now lets go to class," Haley insisted as she closed her bag and threw it onto her shoulders. She reached out for the girl's arms, as they usually locked arms whenever walking to a class together, but Brooke stepped back.

"I say we just skip it. Let's go get a head start on my campaign banners instead!" she suggested excitedly and clapped her hands. "Come on!" she demanded, and watched sadly as the two other girls slowly stepped away from her.

"Sorry, gotta get to class," Haley told her with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Me too," Peyton told her and offered a sad smile. She was happy to see Brooke so excited about something other than cheerleading. Peyton knew she would vote for Brooke without a doubt, as she thought Haley would too.

"Fine, I'll go find Nathan. He can help me. See you girlies later," she told them with a big smile plastered on her face, and waved before heading off into the direction of Nathan's locker.

-------

"Nathan, come on!" Brooke heard as she rounded the corner in the hallway. She stopped dead in her tracks, deciding not to approach Nathan yet. She knew Nathan would want to talk to her, and would put money on him not going to class until he found her. Therefore, Brooke decided it would just be best if she waited for Lucas to leave before she found him.

"No! No fucking way," Nathan blurted out rudely as he roughly pushed a book into his locker, adamantly shaking his head.

"Come on, man! Who else am I gonna get to do it… Tim? None of them want to go against her, they know what she can _do_ to people," Lucas continued as he begged his brother. Brooke stepped out further around the corner for better hearing of the interesting conversation taking place between her boyfriend and his brother.

"I won't do it. If you're all so afraid, what makes you think I would do it? She's my girlfriend, you know," Nathan explained as he closed the door to his locker and looked at Lucas, who appeared defeated. Both guys knew Lucas wasn't going to win this argument.

"Yeah, I know. Believe me," Lucas muttered in a defeated tone. He sighed in exasperation and threw his arms into the air. "Fine, I'll do it!" Lucas exclaimed loudly, almost yelling. He rolled his eyes to his brother and headed back to his group of friends, mumbling "whipped" as he left.

Brooke emerged from behind Nathan with a slight smile on her face. However, it wasn't a genuine smile, it was a mischievous smile as though a predator was nearing its prey. "Hey sweetie," Brooke greeted in a fake tone as she placed her hand onto her boyfriend's arm. "What was that about?"

Nathan shook his head and started walking away from his locker, pushing Brooke's hand off from his arm as he did so. Brooke let out a disappointed frown and hurried to catch up with him. She had assumed that Nathan would be excited for her. She had hoped he would say something like "That's my girl! You've got my vote."

But then again, Brooke knew her dreams of Nathan never came true. She wondered why she even bothered. She was now sure that Nathan would come up with some excuse as to how her running for student council president would do something to negatively affect him, and Brooke was sure she wasn't going to take it.

Brooke had finally found something for her. Something that she wanted to do and nobody, not even the _supposed_ love of her life, was going to stand in the way of that. If people weren't going to be happy for her or want to help her, then Brooke would just do it on her own. Then, when she won this election, she would feel even prouder of herself.

"Is there something you need to tell me?" she asked him rudely, completely dissatisfied with the conversation at hand. She wasn't going to deal with Nathan's crap, not this time. This was her thing, and she would just do it without him.

"It's just…" Nathan started before stopping outside of _his_ first period classroom and turned to her. She couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't walking her to _her _class. She hadn't even done anything wrong. Sometimes she really wished her boyfriend would stop being so damn moody.

"Lucas wanted me to run… against you," Nathan informed her as he shrugged his shoulders. Brooke looked up at him, completely unhappy and folded her arms across her chest. She slowly began tapping her heel against the hard floor beneath her.

"And you said?" she asked, her tone fully warning him that he better say the right answer. Brooke was completely ready to go Grade A bitch on Nathan and Lucas. They weren't going to ruin this for her. In fact, Brooke wanted to go find the pathetic jackass and beat him to a bloody pulp already. How dare he?

"God Brooke, what do you think?" he replied in the same tone she had used with him. "Of course I said no. If this is what you really want to do, then I'm happy for you. I guess Lucas just doesn't want you to win it, so he asked me to do it," he explained to her as he continued to shuffle the books in his hand.

"Good, because I might have had to kick your ass," Brooke told him in a joking tone as she tugged on his arm and wrapped her own around his. She let out a slight chuckle and slowly rested her head on his shoulder.

"I know," he replied, also chuckling and wrapped his free arm around her back.

"Attention!" called a loud voice over the PA system. "Attention students!" it called again. The clusters of students in the hallways gradually quieted down to hear the administration. "We have our fourth candidate. I'm proud to announce… Lucas Scott," the secretary, an older woman, said. The halls erupted into claps from Lucas' proud followers.

Brooke quickly pulled out of Nathan's grasp and brought her hands to her hips. "Seriously?" she yelled and stormed off angrily. The worst part wasn't that she was going to run against Lucas; it was that he could beat her.

-------

Brooke walked into school the next morning with a wide smile plastered all over her flawless face. She'd released all cheerleaders early the day before, and spent the entire night working on campaign posters, buttons, and gifts. Carrying them in with her the next morning, she was quite proud of herself. She was at school, a half an hour earlier than it started, and that was something that Brooke Davis never did.

Haley James, on the other hand, was always early to school. Brooke threw her hand in the air and waved it frantically as she spotted Haley at the end of the hallway. The two had agreed to meet at the front office to start hanging the posters. They had a few for each of the hallways. Peyton had agreed to make flyers, using her art skills, and would meet them ten minutes before the students arrived.

Peyton was going to hand out flyers, Haley was going to hand out the buttons, and Brooke was going to hand out small plastic gift bags that contained a chocolate muffin, a sugar cookie, and a note saying "Vote for me!" Yes, she knew the last part was stretching it a bit, and could possibly be described as bribing, but did she really care? Now that Lucas was running against her, she knew she had some competition, and needed to step it up a notch.

"Brooke!" Haley yelled excitedly and clapped her hands as they met in the hallway. "You're _actually _here," Haley said, sounding as though hell had just frozen over. Brooke rolled her eyes at her friend and lightly pushed her shoulder. She chuckled a bit and hit Haley's hips with her own.

"Come on! Let's go hang these up," Brooke said excitedly as she skipped down the hallway. Haley followed her as she hung up two to three large posters in each hallway, and a few small posters around the cafeteria, gym, and bathrooms… where people tended to spend most of their time in the school.

"Do you have the buttons?" Haley asked Brooke as they hung up the poster. " Peyton should be here in a couple minutes," Haley informed her and stepped back to admire their work. The school was now filled with Brooke's campaign decorations and none of the other candidates had yet put anything up.

"Yeah, they're in my car along with the gift bags. I told her we would meet her there," Brooke told her as they started to head off into the direction of the parking lot. "So," Brooke started in a happy tone, completely satisfied with what they had done so far. "Who do you think is gonna win?" Brooke asked curiously, although she already knew what Haley would say. And the fact that she knew Haley would be telling the truth, made her feel even better.

Brooke had always felt that her friends gave her more confidence than anyone in the world. Although Brooke had always been confident in herself, a lot of the time it had been completely for show. However, when she was with her two best friends, she felt like she could do anything, or be anyone. They gave her real self-confidence, and she loved that. She only wished that she wasn't so afraid of what they would think of her family if she told them what was going on.

-------

Brooke finished up her fries and snuggled against Nathan's arm. She was having a really good day so far. It was now lunchtime, and through all her first four periods students had constantly been coming up to her telling her that she had their vote. Her, Peyton, and Haley had all passed out the gift bags, buttons, and flyers successfully, and they seemed to be working. Brooke was sure she had this thing in the bag now.

Then there was Lucas, he hadn't exactly been the friendliest person to her, but he hadn't been the rudest person to her either. She would say they were peacefully coexisting, which was something new between them. She'd like to think it was for Nathan's sake, but being honest with herself, she was being civil to Lucas for her own sake. She didn't need the drama; it took too much energy out of her.

She watched as Tim approached the table and sat down in his normal spot, next to Lucas, across from Brooke. Brooke, Nathan and her best friends, along with Bevin, Theresa, and Rachel all sat on one side of the table. Lucas, Tim, Jared, and a few guys from the basketball team sat on the other side. Of course, people were always switching spots whenever they were dating each other.

Tim stared over in Brooke's direction before leaning in closer to Lucas. "I took care of it," Tim tried to whisper. Brooke rolled her eyes and let out a deep sigh. She wondered if Tim was literally mentally challenged, because he sure acted like it. Either that, or he was just plain stupid and didn't care, because Brooke could hear him. However, she decided against getting worked up over anything.

She quickly looked over at Lucas, seeing him staring at her with a very unsure look on his face. Brooke had no idea what it was supposed to mean, but it didn't look good. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she stared at Lucas angrily. They were planning something, and Brooke knew it.

The group finished up their meals, stood up, and began to file out of the lunchroom as the bell signaled it was time to go to class. Peyton made a joke about one of the teachers that a few of them had, and Brooke laughed light-heartedly as she rested her head on Nathan's arm and made her way out of the cafeteria.

"Oh my god!" Brooke stopped as she heard Haley shriek and turned to look at her questioningly. "Brooke!" Haley yelled and pointed in the direction behind her.

Brooke turned around, completely confused, and looked in the direction that Haley was pointing. Brooke quickly brought her hand up to cover her mouth that was wide open. She stepped closer as she saw the signs, on the verge of tears. Posters covered the main wall with pictures of Brooke and sayings that said things such as "She's cheated on finals" and "she's cheated on her boyfriend."

There was a sign with a picture of her and a younger male teacher, looking somewhat comfortable, and a saying accusing her of having an affair with the teacher. There was also a sign with a picture of her talking to the captain cheerleader of a rival team talking and a saying that accused her of being paid off to lose the state competition.

Brooke couldn't help but wonder how the culprit had gotten so many personal pictures of her and made up so much. Countless signs accused her of being with guy after guy and cheating on Nathan. The signs were not only cruel, but also explicit. She looked over at the guys, seeing Lucas staring dumbfounded at the signs and Tim giggling into his hands. Quickly, she wiped a tear forming in her eye and ran off in the direction of the bathroom.

-------

Brooke arrived at her house later that day, full of anger and exhaustion. The rest of the day had gone horrible. She was constantly met with snickers from the guys and whispers from the girls. How many times had people approached her and told her they were voting for her? None. The rest of her day had been hell, and it was only Wednesday. She would have to face the students and the lies for two more days, not to mention that voting was moved up to Thursday due to the fact that choir classes were taking a field trip on Friday.

She threw her keys and her purse onto the table as she walked through the hallway and into the living room. Abruptly, she stopped dead in her tracks. There her mother sat, completely calm and still. If she didn't know her, she'd think her mother was dead. But she knew her, and she knew that Kristen wasn't dead. She had been drinking. Then there was also the fact that there was a bottle of wine sitting next to an empty glass on the coffee table.

Brooke let out a deep sigh and hurried into the living room. "Mom," she groaned as she began putting the glass and the bottle into her hands. To say that she was sick of doing this was an understatement. To say that her mother was officially an alcoholic and needed to go to rehab would be the truth. Brooke had done this same thing too many times before. Only this time, something was different.

Brooke stopped moving entirely as she felt her moms hand grasp lightly around Brooke's wrist. Brooke shook her head and pulled her arm out of her mother's grip. She hurried into the kitchen and threw the bottle into the trash and set the glass in the sink. She could hear her mother faintly calling her name. She took a deep breath and then made her way back into the living room, sitting on the couch across from her.

Her dad was nowhere to be seen and her mom was sitting in the living room in the dark getting drunk at six o' clock in the evening… Brooke knew something was wrong. "What is it?" she asked in a cautious tone.

"I… I did something stupid, honey," Kristen spoke in a light, almost caring tone. Brooke could sense that she was sorry for whatever she was about to tell her. That didn't comfort Brooke much, and how could it? She was used to this. She was used to being disappointed by her parents.

"Is this about what you told me on the phone the Friday that dad left?" she asked rudely, in a pushing tone. She wasn't going to sit there and pretend as though she wasn't angry or disappointed with her parents. To the entire rest of the world, she lived a lie, but not with Kristen and Richard. When she had something to say, she said it.

"Yes, it is. I… I've made mistakes. I'm not denying that. I've done things… well, things that I'm not exactly proud of," Kristen explained slowly as Brooke watched her fragile mother. She gave her mom an expectant look and started to say her name, but was quickly cut off.

"I'm pregnant."

Brooke's eyes grew wide as she looked at her mother shocked. The only thing she was thinking was that it was such a surprise because she never thought her mother would get pregnant again. Brooke slowly folded her arms across her chest and looked at her mom with confusion.

"But wait, why is that a mistake? Why is that something stupid?" Brooke asked in an expectant tone, as her voice grew louder with each word.

"Honey, please calm down," Kristen stated softly, but was only met with Brooke fiercely shaking her head.

"No! What was the mistake?" she yelled as she stood up. Deep down, Brooke knew. She didn't need to ask, she already knew the answer. She wasn't blind to her mother's past… she knew that her mother had had an affair before. After all, that is why Nathan's family hated her so much. Deep down, Brooke knew, but she couldn't admit it. "Just tell me," she whispered out as a tear formed in her eye. She knew her family was falling apart; she just didn't want to accept it.

"He left," Kristen informed softly, knowing full well that her daughter understood, and knew what she was telling her. She wasn't actually saying it, but Brooke knew. "I told Richard everything, and then I went and told _him_ and he left. He's not here anymore," Kristen continued to explain.

"And dad?" Brooke asked, actually somewhat concerned for her father. Deep down, she loved her parents, and she knew they loved her too. She knew this would upset her father, just like it had in the past.

"He was… angry. I… I told him this morning. I haven't talked to him since," Kristen stated.

Brooke felt her mom reach up and grasp her hand, but she shook it off angrily. "How long?" Brooke asked forcefully. She couldn't believe that her mother had had an affair, and managed to get pregnant, and neither Brooke nor her father ever knew. She couldn't believe how much of a liar her mom actually was.

"A few months. Honey, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," Kristen pleaded as she looked up at her daughter sadly.

Brooke let out a deep sigh, feeling even more exhausted than she had ten minutes earlier. "I… I need to do homework and get some rest. You wouldn't know this, but I'm running for class president! The voting is tomorrow," Brooke deadpanned, hiding her real sadness and frustration. Brooke shook her head sadly and ran off to her room, closing and locking the door behind her.

-------

Brooke tapped her foot nervously as she stood next to her two best friends. The student council was planning on announcing the new president, and Brooke was extremely nervous. It sickened her that only a day earlier she was sure she was going to win, and now due to Lucas and his friends, she was almost sure she wasn't going to win.

The one thing that she wanted so badly. Something that would really make her feel better about all the drama she was dealing with, and there was a huge chance she wasn't going to get it. She began biting the ends of her fingernails as the afternoon announcements began and they went through the schedule of games that would be held. Brooke couldn't really care less.

"Also, the student council has informed of us your new president. I'm proud to announce… Lucas Scott!"

Brooke sadly turned to Peyton and dropped her head onto her shoulder. "This totally sucks!" Brooke exclaimed after lifting her head off of the blonde's shoulder and began putting her stuff into her locker. "I can't believe _he _beat me!" Brooke continued on and slammed her locker door angrily.

"I swear, I have half of a mind to find that…_Tim_ and beat him to death," Brooke exaggerated after throwing her gym bag onto her shoulder and heading off into the direction of the gym with Peyton.

Brooke smiled as she saw Nathan waiting for her outside of the gym. "Hey, I'll catch up with you in a sec. Oh, and Haley said she had some special tutor thing today," she said to Peyton and then wrapped her arms around Nathan.

"Thank god we can have a minute alone together. I swear, your brother is so gonna get it!" Brooke said in a joking tone and leaned up to kiss him, but was shocked to find Nathan pulling out of her grasp and turning away from her. "What's going-" she started to ask, but was cut off by Nathan.

"I think we should break up," Nathan said harshly as he stepped back further away from her.

Brooke looked up at him confused and completely shocked. "What? Why?!" she yelled as she angrily threw her gym bag onto the floor and folded her arms across her chest. "Is this about the posters? I told you, Lucas and Tim did that! They weren't true," she continued to yell at him.

"Well," Nathan said rudely as he retrieved his own bag and gripped the gym doors for a quick exit. "I just think we could use some time apart from each other," Nathan explained, though Brooke could tell he was obviously lying.

"That's bullshit!" she fought back and started to near him. He mouthed a 'sorry' and quickly headed in the gym.

Brooke began to slightly yell and kick the floor. "This is the worst fucking week ever!" she yelled to herself, considering everyone was inside the gym. She pressed her back against the wall and slowly slid down onto the floor, with her head in her hands.

She lost the election, her boyfriend broke up with her, and her mom told her she had gotten pregnant by someone other than her father. "Brooke?" she heard someone call. Brooke quickly rose to her feet and wiped the tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes. She looked up to him, and quickly rolled her eyes. "What?"

Lucas stepped closer to her cautiously, with a soft look in his eyes. "I just, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the election… and uh, you were good competition," he told her, looking down at her with a sincere smile plastered on his face.

"Whatever. I didn't win, did I? I couldn't really care less," she bit back rudely and picked up the bag that she had left on the floor and put it onto her shoulders.

"Look, Brooke I'm sorry about what happened. I swear I had no idea what Tim was going to do. I just told him that I thought you were going to beat me… I really did. And he said he had and idea to fix it. I had no idea. I'm really sorry it came down to that," he told her, completely sincere.

Brooke looked up into his eyes, and knew he was telling the truth. What she couldn't figure out though, was why he cared. Why was he bothering to say sorry or let her know that it wasn't him? Was he actually planning on laying the mutual hatred to rest and be friendly to each other? Brooke would be lying if she said that wasn't what she wanted… because it was.

"Um, thanks," she mumbled hesitantly, still somewhat uncertain with his apology. He nodded and gave her a slight smile, before making his own way into the gym.

-------

Brooke slowly opened the door and stepped into her house. She was beyond tired and beyond upset. She was pretty sure this was the worst things had been in a very, very long time. Only now, she didn't have Nathan to talk to because he had suddenly, without warning, broken up with her for no apparent reason at all except that he was buying into lies. Her one saving grace… tomorrow was Friday and she had planned a girl's night out with Peyton and Haley.

Brooke started to walk into her room, when she saw her parents quietly sitting in the same spot that her mother had been only a day earlier. "What's going on?" she asked cautiously, sensing that there was a problem. She could see it in the sad looks on their faces… something was wrong.

Although she couldn't understand what it would be. Only earlier that morning her mother had told her that she had talked to Richard the night before and they were going to work through this. So what had happened since then? What was going on? Her head filled with confusing, unanswered questions as she made her way into the living room and sat down in the chair next to them.

"Mom?" she asked as she turned her attention directly to her mother.

"Honey," her mother started quietly, her voice full of sadness. "Your father and I have decided to get a divorce."

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	5. I Can't Hate You Anymore

**Beautiful Disaster**

**Author's Note: **Upset? Sorry. I know this has taken me FORVER. Excuses are lame, I got that. But you know, my life has done complete 180's this year, and I really don't have much time for anything except for school, family, and friends. I've had to divide my time up for stuff, and I'm sorry about that. But here's the next chapter! Thanks so much to Ellie for betaing this, I don't know what I would do without her. And thanks so much to the readers who have stuck by me and are reading this right now! You guys are fantastic.

**Chapter ****Four: I Can't Hate You Anymore**

Brooke wiped another tear that was quickly falling down her face. She wasn't quite sure where she was going. Actually, she knew the exactly _where_ she was going, but she didn't know if she should go there. No, that was a lie, too. She knew she shouldn't be going there. Then again, what else did she have?

She knew Peyton and Haley were out tonight, something Brooke should have agreed to do, if she hadn't stupidly decided not to go. However, she knew either one of them could be home, or they would definitely come and get her. But then she would have to give an explanation of why she couldn't stay at her house and why she was crying so frantically. Brooke wasn't in the mood to come clean; all she wanted to do was sleep her troubles away.

She hated that she was so ashamed of her family, that she couldn't tell her two best friends in the whole wide world what was going on. They deserved that. In fact, she didn't quite know exactly why she wouldn't tell them, just that she felt she couldn't. When she was with Peyton and Haley, she was herself. She was the person she always wanted to be.

If she told them everything, including her disappointment in her family, they would feel sorry for her. She didn't want that.

The next person she thought of was Nathan. Brooke thought about going to him for a whole two seconds before she decided that was a definite no. He clearly didn't want her around, for reasons that were unknown to her. Nathan didn't care about Brooke's well being, and he obviously didn't care about her feelings whatsoever. If he could just break up with her out of the blue, he definitely didn't deserve to know what was going on, or be anywhere near Brooke's heart.

Brooke couldn't help but be a little hurt by the situation. So maybe her and Nathan hadn't been the best couple. Maybe Nathan hadn't been the best friend. He was always screwing up with her. But he had also been the one thing for the fast few years that was there for her. Days when she didn't walk into school, kiss him on the cheek, and feel his arm wrap around her side didn't feel right. And suddenly he was taking that away. He'd dumped her for no reason at all, except he was a selfish jackass. Of course Brooke was hurt by it. She wasn't going to go to Nathan.

That's pretty much where the line of close friends Brooke could go to ended. It was quite pathetic, actually, Brooke thought. She had two people in the entire world that she could count on, and she was too afraid to go to them. What an amazingly pathetic fact. Brooke was alone, completely and absolutely alone.

And when she realized this, she sat in her car, sobbing into the leather of her steering wheel.

_Her life was turning into one sad, inexcusable mess. She had been upset, to say the least, only five hours earlier. She was upset that she lost the election, that her mother had gotten pregnant by someone other than her father, and that her boyfriend had carelessly dumped her because he felt like it. She could safely say it was the worst week she had ever had, and then her parents announced that they were getting a divorce, and she knew this was what rock bottom felt like._

_She didn't even understand why they were getting a divorce. Her mother had assured her that both Kristen and Richard were going to work through their problems together, and that they would be keeping the baby and raising it as Richard's. So Brooke had one question "what the hell happened?" She let out a bloodcurdling scream and pounded her head into the wheel in front of her_

_She didn't need to be reminded that her family, as well as her life, was incredibly screwed up. A little earlier she found out that her mom had been pregnant for months, yet she didn't hold back from drinking at every chance she could get? Her mother and father would get into fights and he would take off for days. Yes, she knew everything was completely screwed up._

_She angrily started the ignition and sped out of her driveway, wanting to get as far away from this horrible mess as possible._

So now, she was driving to the one place she knew she _shouldn't_ go. She had no right being there. She couldn't even form a reason as to why she was driving in his direction. He'd always been a very selfish jackass to her. He didn't care about her, not at all, but maybe that's why she was going to him.

She couldn't go to either of her two best friends because she didn't want to explain anything, she was too afraid of what they would think. With him, she couldn't really care less what he thought of her. She couldn't really care less what he would say to her. With him, she wouldn't have to explain what was going on. If anything, it would be a bed to sleep in until she could handle returning home.

It was worth a shot because she really didn't have anything to lose. At this point, she didn't really have anything at all. If he threw her out on her ass, nothing would be lost. She took a deep breath, brought her hand up, and started to loudly knock on the door. She waited almost twenty seconds before he opened the door, clearly shocked to see her standing in front of him.

She hadn't had time to change. After the hell that was cheerleading practice ended, she stopped by Subway with the girls for dinner, and then headed home. When she got there, she was welcomed by her parents and their god-awful news. Immediately, she angrily took off. She hadn't even had time to take a shower yet.

She knew he would probably run to his friends the next day, saying how pathetically gross Brooke Davis has looked less than twenty four hours earlier. Her makeup was hideous. She had stains of black and grey running from her eyes down to her cheeks from the tears, along with smudged eyeliner covering her eyes. Her hair was wet and messy. It was almost eight o' clock at night, yet she was still in her THH cheerleading shirt and shorts, and she hadn't gotten to take a shower after the very active practice.

She looked, and felt, like complete crap.

Lucas stood staring at her for what seemed like hours, before he finally spoke her name. "Brooke?"

She roughly wiped a building tear out of her eye, and folded her arms across her chest defensively. She felt completely naked to the entire world. Sadly, she looked up to him, her eyes pleading with his. He _had_ said that she could come to him if she ever wanted to talk, but she was pretty sure that neither of the two thought she would actually do so.

"I need somewhere to…" Brooke started and trailed off. What was she supposed to say in a situation like this? She didn't want to be at her house and she needed a place to crash? " I… I didn't have anywhere else to go," she whispered, her voice cracking as she uttered the words. It was true. She _didn't_ have anywhere else to go.

He sadly nodded his head, and Brooke was sure that she saw an actual human emotion form in Lucas Scott's eyes. She never thought she would see the day when that happened. He ushered her inside, and handed her a pair of newly cleaned sweats he had sitting on his desktop. Brooke smiled and took them from his hands. So maybe he wasn't completely stupid. He obviously sensed how uncomfortable she felt. Either that, or he thought she looked disgusting too.

He didn't ask her what was wrong, and she was very thankful that he hadn't. She didn't want to explain anything to anyone, she just wanted to sleep. She watched as he mumbled something incoherently and left his room to let her change.

He came back into his room a few minutes after leaving, and she was changed and standing uncomfortably, look at the pictures scattered all over his wall. A few were of friends, mostly guys from the team and girls from the squad, but the rest were of him and some sort of basketball-related activity. She never knew that he loved it so much, as much it seemed, as Nathan did.

"You can, uhh, have the bed. I can sleep out on the floor," he started, and awkwardly reached to grab for a pillow, but she stopped him by lightly pressing her hand onto the pillow.

"You don't have to… it's okay," she whispered, not needing to go into detail. She new he would understand what she meant, and hopefully not take it as an invitation. Contrary to his previous comments, she wasn't a slut.

So maybe it hadn't been her smartest idea ever. After all, the two did hate each other, their families despised each other, and she had just told him it was okay for the two to sleep in the same bed together. She didn't think the word awkward quite cut it. But, she was intruding on his life in his house, unexpectedly. The least she could do was let him sleep in his own bed. Yet, there was no way she was going to offer to sleep on the floor.

Slowly, she laid herself down onto the bed, pulled the covers half way over her body, and watched as Lucas did the same. Approximately four minutes later, the lights were off, the tension was visible, and Brooke decided she needed to talk. "Thanks… for this," she started quietly. "I was at home and I just," she started, but was cut off by him delicately touching her arm, which caused her to somewhat flinch.

This was weird. Random and weird, she knew that. She was very thankful that he hadn't called her crazy and made her leave… many guys she knew would have. She barely knew Lucas. Showing up at her supposed enemies house to sleep in his bed. Thinking about how ridiculous the situation sounded, she realized it might have been less weird to be at Nathan's. So maybe she wasn't the sanest person when she was driving and deciding where to go, but it was either here, or sleeping her car.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me anything."

Brooke gave a slight nod, even though he couldn't see her, and proceeded to fall asleep. There they slept, as far away from each other on the opposite side of the bed as possible, with backs turned to each other. It was definitely something Brooke thought she would never do.

**-------**

Brooke took a glance at the bright red numbers that were displayed on his alarm clock. It was about 6:45, and she still needed to get back home to shower and get ready for school. She was hoping she could slip in, unnoticed, get ready, and be gone in a half an hour.

She glanced over at Lucas, who was still sleeping sound in his bed. She smiled slightly, silently thanking him for his courtesy the night before. She wouldn't be surprised if she got to school and all the guys knew. Who knows what Lucas would even tell them? But she didn't care She'd have the whole weekend to let them get over it, after the approaching basketball game of course.

She grabbed a pencil that he left laying next to his laptop, and a piece of paper from a stack that sat carelessly unorganized on his desk. She scribbled down a few words, thanking him for last night and telling him she'd drop his sweats by later. Quietly, she walked around to the side of the bed and placed it on the nightstand, before leaving his room.

She took a deep breath before pulling around the corner to her house, bracing herself for what might come if her parents were still home and happened to see her. She expected to walk in, and see her parents fighting once more. Instead, she saw two black cars she had never seen before.

When she got to the door, she pulled out her key to unlock it, but found that it was unlocked when she opened it. She stepped inside, seeing two men standing separate with each of her parents and two other men doing looking through things around the house.

"Mom?" she asked as she neared them, and the man talking to her mother turned toward Brooke let her know that he was with the FBI by introducing himself. She shook the man's hand and returned the courtesy. "What's going on?" she asked in a very concerned tone. Her mother and the man with her were silent for a few seconds, and she could hear the other man with her father asking something about missing money and his company. Brooke couldn't quite understand what he was saying and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"It's nothing sweetie, just get ready for school," Kristen said, leaving Brooke to roll her eyes and walk away.

She did as she planned, and got in the shower, got dressed, dried her hair a slight bit before throwing it up into a messy bun, and applied a slight bit of makeup. She then grabbed her bag, and made her way back out into the living room. It was at least thirty minutes later, and the men were still snooping through her house. Brooke watched them questioningly for a minute, before leaving for school. Whatever it was, she knew wasn't good.

-------

Brooke walked down the hall, defeated and tired. She had four words that could sum up everything in her head at the moment, "thank god it's Friday" because she was beat and she knew she couldn't take another day of school right now. She was so sick of everything and everyone, and she really just needed chill time away from people and the drama. And even though it seemed as though things couldn't get worse for Brooke, they did, as she saw Nathan walking down the hall.

She turned her head to spot the nearest hallway or classroom that she could duck into to avoid him, but there was nothing in sight. She turned back and was met with the staring eyes of Nathan Scott. He had spotted her, and was coming in her direction. She rolled her eyes as she stepped closer to her and greeted her in a happy tone. Ugh, not only was he a jackass, but a dumbass. Obviously he didn't know the etiquette for breakups. _Idiot._

"What the _hell _do you want Nathan?" she demanded as he stopped in front of her, their bodies almost colliding, and she began to tap her foot. She didn't want to hear his excuses, whether they were good or bad. She wasn't going to sit around this time, wondering how long it would take him to apologize. And if he was apologizing, she wasn't going to take him back, not this time.

But to her surprise, that wasn't the case.

"I just wanted to say _Brooke, _that I'm sorry about yesterday, I hope we can still be friends," he told her, and was only met with her eye rolls and dramatic sighs. "I mean, if you want to act like a bitch to me because of this, I really wouldn't be surprised, but we have all the of the same friends and I don't think we can avoid being around each other," he further explained to her, letting her know that her feelings had nothing to do with this.

"Umm, that's not true, because this bitch plans to avoid you like the plague," she said, and adjusted her Juicy Couture bag to get ready to run off, but then stopped herself. "You know what Nathan, I can't believe you actually had the nerve to say that to me! You dumped me!" she said, her voice rising with each word and she hit him on the shoulder.

"You dumped me… for no fucking reason when I actually _needed _you to be there for me. Just like today. I don't have time for your idiotic bullshit Nathan! So why don't you just grow the fuck up?" she yelled in his face, the anger rising in her with every word she spit out. She knew she wasn't in the wrong here, Nathan was. They'd been together for years, she put up with his shit for so long because she loved him, and this is how he repaid her.

"I shouldn't have been surprised, this is you Nathan. This is what you do, and that will probably never change. You're just an ass that cares about nobody but himself," she spat at him, her words coming out like venom. She looked up into his eyes, making sure that she did just that, to see what kind of reaction she wouldn't get out of him. Whether he would care, or not care?

She could practically see the wheels turning in his head, he was contemplating something. Like he wasn't sure if he should say whatever he was about to say, or not. She knew she should have just ran away from him, leaving their encounter with her having the last word, but, she was blind in love.

"And you're just a dumb slut who can't keep her legs closed," he spat back, slowly with that grin on his face. He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew exactly where he could hit her the hardest. He knew that Brooke's mom was a slut and there was nothing that anyone could call Brooke that would hurt her worse than that. It was really as though he was twisting the knife, "And that will _never_ change," he said, and walked away from her, proud and victorious.

Brooke was stunned. Well, that was a lie, because when it came to Nathan he would always be like this and nothing would stun her. Dumbfounded was more like it, that's what she was. She was completely still, standing in the middle of the hallway, ready to burst into tears at any second. Nathan had always had that negative effect on her, what a catch, really.

She wiped at her eyes furiously, forcing herself not to cry, not in front of all these people. She turned around quickly; ready to bolt literally, when she collided with the body planted right behind her. The mere sight of him at the moment made her want to vomit. It really did. For once, it wasn't actually Lucas that made her gag, it was Nathan, and the fact that Lucas was his brother.

She could see the concern in his eyes. She still didn't understand why. Even if they were getting along somewhat now and didn't feel complete hatred for the other right now, why was he trying to be instant best friends so quickly? He had to know that couldn't happen, not this quick. At least he wasn't being mean to her, which she was thankful for.

"Brooke? Are you okay? What happened?" he asked in a very concerned manner and raised his arms to touch her shoulder but she quickly backed up. She let out a sarcastic laugh, and immediately regretted what came next.

"What do you mean what happened? _He_ happened! That cruel, brainless, jackass happened! And to think I thought you were the worse brother of the two," Brooke yelled, scolding herself for ever thinking that Lucas was worse than Nathan. "You know what, just stay the hell away from me. And that goes for your _brother _too!" Brooke exclaimed, and quickly ran off. She felt somewhat bad; she was taking her anger and frustration for Nathan out on Lucas.

-------

The whole next week had passed by like one big blur filled with nonstop anger and depression. She was upset about her family, and how it had been slowly falling apart since the start, and now it was ending.

Detectives had continued to search her family for the whole next week. They were prying into every bit of her life. They were searching her home, her and her parents bank accounts, everything. Every inch of it, and she had no idea why. By now she knew that it obviously had something to due with money, and one of the detectives had been talking to her father about the company he worked for, so piecing it together she knew it had something to due with the company's money, she just didn't know what. Her parents were fighting nonstop, and it was definitely the worst it's ever been.

Brooke could barely take it anymore. It was killing her to not know what was going on, but at the same time she knew that she probably couldn't handle knowing the truth right now.

She was thankful that it was Friday, because currently she lived for the weekends. No longer was she pumped up and excited for cheering at the basketball games, something she used to love doing. Now it was all about being able to relax during the weekend and not having to be at school. She had told Peyton and Haley about her parents getting a divorce, though not about the FBI. She told them that the FBI had been there, but not her suspicions about why they were there. They knew how upset Brooke had been lately, so they all decided on a girls night out after the game.

Still, even that couldn't cheer Brooke up at the moment. The only thing she could depend on right now, was alcohol. She wasn't an alcoholic, she wasn't dependent on it, and more importantly she wasn't her mother, she knew this, but it helped her get through the day and feel more relaxed, and so that's why she was drinking it up at seven in the morning before school. She knew it wasn't wise, especially because she could tell how worried her two best friends were about her and that was killing her inside, but she just couldn't bring herself to care.

She'd driven herself to school, and she was well on her way to getting drunk. Not only the fact that she was drinking and driving, but also she was late getting to school. Usually everyone got to school and had twenty minutes or so to get their things and socialize with their classmates, some even ate breakfast. With the way her morning was going, she was going to get there and have to hurry to class just to make it in time, if that was still possible. Really, she didn't care too much. What would being tardy do to her anyways?

As soon as she got into the parking lot and stepped out of her car, stumbling a slight bit, she knew she was in for it… Peyton had seen her and was coming in her direction. "Davis, where the hell have you been?" she yelled to her as she came in her direction, and Brooke immediately sighed and dropped her head.

Peyton could smell it immediately, she could see it in Brooke's demeanor and she could smell it on her breath, and this made Peyton even more worried about Brooke. "Oh my god," Peyton said in a disappointed tone, moved closer to Brooke, and put her hands on Brooke's shoulders. "Have you been drinking? This early in the morning? Before school?" Peyton continued to question Brooke.

Brooke was nervous, and mostly disappointed in herself, because she didn't want Peyton to be disappointed in her. So she fixed this the only way she knew how. "Get your hands off of me!" she demanded and pushed Peyton's hands off of her shoulders. "This is my business, so just leave me alone."

"Brooke, what's wrong with you?" Peyton asked softly, hurt by her friend, but quickly dropped it. "Let me take you home. I can come back and pick you up at lunch time and you can still cheer at the game," Peyton told her, like she was negotiating a deal.

"I don't give a fuck about the _game_!" Brooke yelled to her. She rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest as she saw him walking in her direction. Yeah, that's exactly what she needed, him involving himself in this and making matters worse. Why couldn't people get it through her thick skulls, she didn't need anyone's charity.

"What's going on?" Lucas said as she walked up to the two girls after hearing Brooke yelling at Peyton and pushing her off of her.

He was concerned for her, which was definitely something abnormal. But he didn't want it to stay that way. Sometimes he felt angry with himself for being so mean to her for the past few years, when he knew he really had no reason to act like that. He knew he started the whole mess; it was his fault that they hated each other for so long.

He knew Brooke had major issues going on in her life, and he felt bad for her. So even if they wouldn't be able to be any type of friends in the future, he at least wanted to take it easy on her, and even help her, now. Why he felt so drawn to her lately, he had no idea. He guessed he was seeing her in a new light and the Brooke that he was seeing, the real Brooke, wasn't so bad.

"Just great. Why don't _you_ just _leave_?" Brooke told him, and then turned her attention to Peyton with a sharp look on her face. "And you too."

"She's been drinking. I would say 'this morning' but it's more like all week," Peyton explained to him. She didn't really know where Lucas and Brooke were at the moment, whether they hated each other or not, but if she was going to get Lucas' help, she knew she needed to tell him what was going on.

"Do you think you can take her home? I was going to, but Haley took me to school today. It would just be easier," Peyton explained to him, hoping he would agree even though she felt bad that she couldn't be the one to take care of Brooke.

Lucas turned to look at Brooke, who obviously wasn't very happy with the situation, and for probably the first time in his life, he didn't want to piss her off… but at the same time, he wasn't going to say no now. "Yeah, sure. Do you think you guys can get her and come pick up her car?" he asked.

Peyton nodded, remembering that they were going to have a girl's night anyways. "Yeah, will do. Thanks Lucas," she said with a smile, slightly feeling bad that he was going to miss part of first period. She pulled Brooke into a hug and whispered in her ear that she loved her and would talk to her later, and left for class.

"Okay, let's go," Lucas told her and pulled out his keys.

Brooke shook her head as she rolled her eyes. "You're not serious right? She's gone; you can stop being the hero. I can take care of myself," she spat at him. Lucas just shook his head and grabbed her arm. "Why, so I can be the ass that lied and didn't take you home? I'm helping you Brooke, do you want to get in trouble?" he told her as he started walking towards his car. Luckily, she was following. He assumed it was because he was one of the very few people that stood up to Brooke Davis.

"Well then I'll just go home, I can drive myself," she told him informatively.

"Like hell Brooke. Now, I'm taking you home," he said forcefully, unlocked his car, and got inside.

Brooke laughed cynically as she got in. "This is the second time that you've demanded I get in your car! That's really creepy, Scott," she told him as she got inside. He simply laughed and drove off.

When they got to her house, Lucas was unsure what to say… a snide "you're welcome" or a nice "I'm sorry"? He really wasn't sure. And then he saw her parents standing by Richard's car, yelling, and it appeared as though he was getting ready to leave for work. He looked over at Brooke, and could see that she upset, annoyed, and embarrassed all at once. He felt bad for her, and wanted to offer her some sort of reassurance that she shouldn't be embarrassed, and that he wasn't going to tell anyone about the stuff he had seen lately.

"Hey Brooke," he told her, and watched as she slowly turned to him. He couldn't even imagine what she felt like lately. They had had mutual hatred for each other for quite awhile now, and he was being let in on some of her dark family secrets that people didn't know about? "I'm sorry about all of this stuff," he told her nervously and awkwardly, not sure how to go about he situation.

"And just so you know, I'm not going to tell my family or anyone about your parents or the FBI or anything, in case that's what your thinking. I mean, that's your business, not everyone else's," he told her, and could see her face softening, which was relief to him.

"Thanks," she said to him softly with a slight smile, but quickly turned to look at her parents as their voices raised and she could hear what they were saying through the rolled down windows.

"Richard, this is your own goddamn fault! How dare you steal money from your company! Were you even thinking about myself or Brooke when you started illegally stealing thousands of dollars!" she yelled at him, leaving Brooke stunned.

"Of course I was thinking of you and Brooke! Why the hell do you think I needed this money! Because you two are selfish unappreciative brats who constantly need money! Not to mention the fact that I've been paying him off for the last seventeen years! Did you ever think how much money that has cost me, because of your stupid mistakes!" he yelled, his voice rising with every word.

The two shut up and turned to see Brooke getting out of Lucas' car, crying and running into the house.

-------


End file.
